Gruber, William E. 1943-

views updated

GRUBER, William E. 1943-

PERSONAL: Born September 26, 1943, in Hokendauqua, PA; son of William I. (a teacher) and Bessie (a teacher; maiden name, Hartman) Gruber; married Nancy Herrick, October 21, 1968; children: Elaine H., Laura K., Robert H. Education: Yale University, B.A., 1965; University of Idaho, M.A., 1974; Washington State University, Ph.D., 1979.

ADDRESSES: Office—Department of English, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322. E-mail—wegrube@emory.edu.

CAREER: Journalist and educator. Courier-Post, Camden, NJ, reporter, 1968-69; Age, Melbourne, Australia, reporter, 1969-70; Emory University, Atlanta, GA, professor of English, 1980—. Military service: U.S. Marine Corps, 1966-68.

MEMBER: Modern Language Association, South Atlantic Modern Language Association.

AWARDS, HONORS: Bread Loaf Writer's Conference Bakeless Prize, 2002, for On All Sides Nowhere.

WRITINGS:

Comic Theaters (novel), University of Georgia Press (Athens, GA), 1986.

Missing Persons (novel), University of Georgia Press (Athens, GA), 1994.

On All Sides Nowhere: Building a Life in Rural Idaho (memoir), Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2002.

SIDELIGHTS: William E. Gruber is a writer and professor of English whose third book, the memoir On All Sides Nowhere: Building a Life in Rural Idaho, takes him back to his days as a graduate student. In 1972 Gruber began graduate work at the University of Idaho while he and his wife homesteaded forty acres in the wilderness. Gruber reflects on how he eventually began to understand the lives of his neighbors, some of whom lived in crumbling shacks with junked cars in the yard, and good-naturedly pokes fun at their humorous idioms and simple yet magical way of perceiving the world. Booklist contributor Gilbert Taylor commended Gruber's characterization of his friends and neighbors, writing that they are "efficiently and honestly portrayed." A critic for Publishers Weekly agreed, noting that "While Gruber's writing is a gift, even better are the simple but profound truths he shares."