Saturday, November 7, 2009

All about Harry Gilleland


Harry E. Gilleland, Jr. is a 64-year-old southerner. Born and raised in Macon, Georgia, he earned a B.S. (1966) and a M.S. (1968) in Microbiology from the University of Georgia in Athens. Following three years of service in the U.S. Army as a captain, including a tour of duty in Vietnam, he returned to earn a Ph.D. in Microbiology from UGA in 1973. He then headed north to complete a two-year fellowship at the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada. In July of 1975 he joined the faculty of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in Shreveport, Louisiana. After twenty-nine years of teaching microbiology to medical and graduate students and performing vaccine research, Harry retired in July of 2004. Today Harry lives in Shreveport with his wonderful wife Linda. Harry enjoys being able to engage in his passion for writing full-time.


Harry has previously published three books of his personal poetry: Poetry For The Common Man: Storoems and Poems (2003, ISBN 1411600649), Gilleland Poetry: Storoems and Poems (2005, ISBN 1411629272), and Poetic Musings of an Old, Fat Man (2008, ISBN 978-1-4357-1242-3). In addition, Harry has published two books of prose, a tale of fantasy entitled Bob the Dragon Slayer (2005, ISBN 1411633156) and a contemporary romance story entitled White Lightning Road (2006, ISBN 978-1-4116-8693-9).

Harry Gilleland’s poetry recently won two cash awards in the 2008 Tom Howard Poetry Contest associated with Winning Writers.com. Harry’s rhyming storoem The Old Salty Poems won 2nd Place with a $1,000 prize, while his free-verse poem The Assembled Waiters earned $200 for a High Distinction award. Harry was the only poet to win two cash awards in the contest.

Harry Gilleland’s poetry has been included in four multi-author print anthologies of poems and short stories, in several poetry e-zines, and on numerous Internet poetry forums, in addition to his own three published collections. His storoems (story-poems) and poems are readily accessible to all readers, including those who do not regularly read poetry. Harry views the world with a poet’s eye.


To see Harry's books: http://www.lulu.com/harry
To see Harry's book covers and samples of his poetry: http://www.gillelands.com/poetry/
Harry's books are available for purchase at: LuLu.com, Amazon.com, and Barnes and Noble.com

18 comments:

Karen Cioffi said...

Wow, Harry, I didn't realize you won so many awards!

It's always nice to learn more about authors and writers.

Karen Cioffi
http://dkvwriting4u.com

Unknown said...

Congrats on your awards Harry. I love your poetry-keep it coming!

Vivian Zabel said...

I've been a big fan of Harry's for a long time.

I've also been a big fan of Chrys', just not quite as long. I knew Harry first.

Marvin D Wilson said...

It's good to see writers keeping poetry alive, it's such a rich form of literature, and Harry's work in that genre is stellar, as testified to by winning so many awards. And, like I said before, any author who has enough good natured self-effacing humor to refer to himself as the "Old Fat Man" is AOK in my book. :)

The Old Silly

DarcĂ­a Helle said...

Congratulations on the awards, Harry!

Harry Gilleland said...

First, thanks for hosting me today, Crystalee. You did a great job with this post.

Karen, Kathy, Vivian, Marvin, and Darcia ~~
My thanks to each of you for your comment. Winning these awards for my poetry was good for both my ego and my pocketbook. I earned more from these two poems' prizes in this contest than from the sales of all five of my books.
It seems even award-winning poetry doesn't sell in poetry books...

I'll have to update my bio. I turned 65 last week (30 October). That's really old! LOL Still fat, too.

I appreciate all of you for visiting and taking time to leave your remarks.

Cheers!

Harry

Anonymous said...

You're a very interesting guy, Harry. An advanced degree in microbiology? You could weave this into a thriller. A disgruntled employee decides to whip up something in the lab that threatens to kill lots of people unless the hero stops him.

Stephen Tremp

Carolyn Howard-Johnson said...

I'm in love with Harry. Have been following all his information around. An award-winning poet? How could I not?
Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Author of poetry chapbook Tracings (www.budurl.com/CarolynsTracings )

Lea Schizas - Author/Editor said...

Congratulations, Harry, on your contest wins. I was thrilled to have read this. Learned something new about you...you must indeed be a great poet.

Katie Hines said...

You've certainly been around and done a lot, Harry. It almost seems to be a dichotomy of terms to have one be so skilled in the sciences to write successfully in the arts.

Katie Hines said...

You've certainly been around and done a lot, Harry. It almost seems to be a dichotomy of terms to have one be so skilled in the sciences to write successfully in the arts.

Margaret Fieland said...

Harry, you are an inspiration. Keep writing.

Harry Gilleland said...

Stephen, you might be right if I ever write a novel in that genre. Making use of my microbiological background would make sense. I still consider myself mainly a poet instead of a novelist.

Thanks, Carolyn. We poets need to stick together!

Lea, I don't know about being "a great poet". I'm mainly an undiscovered one at present! LOL

Kathie, it was a huge dichotomy to be both a scientist and a poet. The two writing styles are so totally different. I loved poetry because it allows creativity and fantasy that is totally frowned upon in scientific writings. However, all those years writing research papers, grants, etc did serve me well as a fiction author due to the training in writing correctly (grammar, clear expression). [Wow, you were so impressed by the dichotomy that you commented on it twice. :-) ]

Margaret, thanks for the encouragement.

Cheers!

Harry

Abigail Beal said...

Hello Crystalee and Harry :)

What a GREAT title for a poetry book! I laughed - and my cat looked at me funny. Thank you for sharing Harry's book and awards. Congratulations!

:) Abigail

Helena Harper said...

What an interesting post, Crystalee, and Harry, what an interesting life! When did you start writing? Did you want to pursue writing full-time earlier on in your life? You are obviously a multi-talented writer - which genre do you prefer? Is poetry your favourite?

By the way, my mother (who's 83) would say you're still a spring chicken!!!

Helena

Martha said...

Congrats on all of the awards and what an interesting background you have.
Martha Swirzinski
www.wholechildpublishing.com

Gayle said...

Wow, Harry, even your title makes me smile. How funny your book must be! :-)

Abigail Beal said...

Hello Crystalee and Harry :)

Thank you very much for the book. I was so excited to win. I think it is only fair I share this book with my cat.....

Wishing you great success with your writing projects!

:) Abigail