Gerald Haslam
Encyclopedia
Gerald William Haslam is the author credited with having created an awareness of "the other California
" (in a book of the same name), the state's untrendy small town and rural reaches. A native of Oildale
in the Bakersfield area, Haslam has often written about the Great Central Valley (also in a book of the same name), about country music
(Workin' Man Blues), about the despair and exultation of blue collar people in a golden state (That Constant Coyote, Condor Dreams, Straight White Male, etc.), winning numerous literary awards.Most recently he (and wife Janice E. Haslam) have examined the life of another maverick, Senator S. I. Hayakawa
(In Thought and Action: The Enigmatic Life of S. I. Hayakawa). Reviewer David Peck labeled him "the quintessential California writer." Reviewer Julie Robertson wrote, “I don’t know what I love best about Gerald Haslam’s writing: the validation of his own turf, his marvelous sense of history and metaphor, or his zany and poignant characters.” Historian Kevin Starr observed, “for Haslam the Great Central Valley offers a profound and dynamic probe, an axis of approach, a metaphor, into the human condition itself.” Professor David Fine asserts, “He writes with tolerance about intolerance, with a sense of justice about injustice and with humor that doesn’t stoop to condescension.” The Long Beach Press-Telegram called him simply “the writers’ writer.”
(SSU) from 1967 to 1997 as a professor of English. He was a generalist, teaching everything from elementary linguistics to regional literature to writing. Now a professor emeritus at SSU—where he occasionally teaches for the Oscher Lifelong Learning program—he also now teaches for the Fromm Institute for Lifelong Learning
at the University of San Francisco
, and serves as an adjunct professor for the Union Graduate School. During his time at Sonoma State and after, he published hundreds of articles and stories in both national and regional magazines. He was a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle's Sunday magazine and a Contributing Writer for the Los Angeles Times Sunday magazine, and a commentator for KQED-FM
's "The California Report." His writing is widely anthologized.
He is also the father of computer-game innovator Fred Haslam
, illustrator Garth Haslam and editor-writer Alexandra Haslam Russell.
Non-Fiction
Anthologies
Booklets and Monographs
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
" (in a book of the same name), the state's untrendy small town and rural reaches. A native of Oildale
Oildale, California
Oildale is a census-designated place in Kern County, California, United States. Oildale is located north-northwest of downtown Bakersfield, at an elevation of 469 feet . The population was 32,684 at the 2010 census, up from 27,885 at the 2000 census...
in the Bakersfield area, Haslam has often written about the Great Central Valley (also in a book of the same name), about country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
(Workin' Man Blues), about the despair and exultation of blue collar people in a golden state (That Constant Coyote, Condor Dreams, Straight White Male, etc.), winning numerous literary awards.Most recently he (and wife Janice E. Haslam) have examined the life of another maverick, Senator S. I. Hayakawa
S. I. Hayakawa
Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa was a Canadian-born American academic and political figure of Japanese ancestry. He was an English professor, and served as president of San Francisco State University and then as United States Senator from California from 1977 to 1983...
(In Thought and Action: The Enigmatic Life of S. I. Hayakawa). Reviewer David Peck labeled him "the quintessential California writer." Reviewer Julie Robertson wrote, “I don’t know what I love best about Gerald Haslam’s writing: the validation of his own turf, his marvelous sense of history and metaphor, or his zany and poignant characters.” Historian Kevin Starr observed, “for Haslam the Great Central Valley offers a profound and dynamic probe, an axis of approach, a metaphor, into the human condition itself.” Professor David Fine asserts, “He writes with tolerance about intolerance, with a sense of justice about injustice and with humor that doesn’t stoop to condescension.” The Long Beach Press-Telegram called him simply “the writers’ writer.”
Early life and education
Haslam was born in Bakersfield, the son of an oil worker. Growing up in nearby Oildale, he attended public schools, then Garces Memorial High School, before working as a farm field hand, a store clerk, and an oil field roustabout and roughneck. He served in the U.S. Army from 1958 through 1960. He attended Bakersfield (Junior) College, then ‘San Francisco State University’, where he earned a B.A in 1963 and an M.A. in 1965. He completed a Ph.D. from the Union Graduate School in 1980.[2] He also played college football, ran track, and boxed in the Golden Gloves. He is a member of the Bakersfield College Track/Cross-country Hall of Fame.Career at Sonoma State University
Haslam taught at Sonoma State UniversitySonoma State University
Sonoma State University is a public, coeducational business and liberal arts college affiliated with the California State University system. The main campus is located in Rohnert Park, California, United States and lies approximately south of Santa Rosa and north of San Francisco...
(SSU) from 1967 to 1997 as a professor of English. He was a generalist, teaching everything from elementary linguistics to regional literature to writing. Now a professor emeritus at SSU—where he occasionally teaches for the Oscher Lifelong Learning program—he also now teaches for the Fromm Institute for Lifelong Learning
Fromm Institute for Lifelong Learning
The Fromm Institute for Lifelong Learning at the University of San Francisco offers noncredit courses with no assignments or grades for adults age 50 and over with no other objective than the love of learning...
at the University of San Francisco
University of San Francisco
The University of San Francisco , is a private, Jesuit/Catholic university located in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1855, USF was established as the first university in San Francisco. It is the second oldest institution for higher learning in California and the tenth-oldest university of...
, and serves as an adjunct professor for the Union Graduate School. During his time at Sonoma State and after, he published hundreds of articles and stories in both national and regional magazines. He was a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle's Sunday magazine and a Contributing Writer for the Los Angeles Times Sunday magazine, and a commentator for KQED-FM
KQED-FM
KQED-FM is an NPR-member radio station owned by Northern California Public Broadcasting in San Francisco, California.KQED-FM was founded by James Day in 1969 as the radio arm of KQED Television. The founding manager was Bernard Mayes who later went on to be Executive Vice-President of KQED TV and...
's "The California Report." His writing is widely anthologized.
He is also the father of computer-game innovator Fred Haslam
Fred Haslam
Fred Haslam is a game designer and the son of writer Gerald Haslam.Haslam co-created SimCity 2000 with Will Wright, and he has co-authored "SimEarth" and "Blast Doors". He is also the owner and creator of the game site Fred's Friends which is the home of a number of free and pay games, Dragon...
, illustrator Garth Haslam and editor-writer Alexandra Haslam Russell.
Literary Awards
- 2006 Josephine Miles Award (from PEN Oakland) for Haslam's Valley
- 2005 Delbert and Edith Wylder Award (from the Western Literature Association)
- 2004 Certificate of Commendation (from the California Arts Council)
- 2001 Western States Book Award (fiction) for Straight White Male
- 2001 Silver Medal (from FOREWORD magazine) for Straight White Male
- 2001 Carey McWilliams Award (from the California Studies Association)
- 2001 Certificate of Commendation (from American Association for State and Local History) for Workin' Man Blues
- 2000 Ralph J. Gleason Award (from Rolling Stone, BMI and NYU) for Workin' Man Blues
- 1999 Distinguished Achievement Award (from the Western Literature Association)
- 1994 Commonwealth Club Silver Medal for The Great Central Valley: California's Heartland
- 1994 Award of Merit (from American Association for State and Local History) for The Great Central Valley: California's Heartland
- 1994 Bay Area Book Reviewers' Award for The Great Central Valley: California's Heartland
- 1993 Benjamin Franklin Award (from Publishers' Marketing Association) for Many Californias: Literature from the Golden State
- 1990 Josephine Miles Award (from PEN Oakland) for That Constant Coyote
- 1989 Creative Writing Fellowship (from the California Arts Council)
- 1988 Honorable Mention, SPUR Short Fiction Award (from Western Writers of America) for "The Estero"
- 1985 Bernard Ashton Raborg Award (from AMELIA magazine) for "William Saroyan and the Critics"
- 1983 Special Mention, Pushcart PrizePushcart PrizeThe Pushcart Prize is an American literary prize by Pushcart Press that honors the best "poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot" published in the small presses over the previous year. Magazine and small book press editors are invited to nominate up to 6 works they have featured....
(for "The Man Who Cultivated Fire") - 1971 Honorable Mention, Joseph Henry Jackson AwardJoseph Henry Jackson AwardThe Joseph Henry Jackson Award is a literary award offered annually to promising young California writers. The award is sponsored by and administered by Intersection for the Arts. There is no entry fee to apply for this award. Recipients receive $2000....
(for "Okies") - 1969 Arizona Quarterly Award (for "The Subtle Thread")
Community Honors
- 2010 Commencement speaker, California State University, Bakersfield
- 2009 Award of Distinguished Service, Yosemite Association
- 2008 Hall of Honor, Garces Memorial High School
- 2007 Levan Visiting Eminent Scholar, Bakersfield College
- 2007 Track & Field/Cross-country Hall of Fame, Bakersfield College
- 2007 Lawrence Clark Powell Memorial Invitational Lecturer, UCLA Library
- 2003 Sequoia—Giant of the Valley (Lifetime Achievement Award), Great Valley Center Presidents' Circle
- 1993 Outstanding Literary Artist, County of Kern
- 1992 Friends of the SSU Library Faculty Award
- 1989 Meritorious Performance Award, Sonoma State University
- 1986 Fulbright Senior Lectureship, Spain
- 1986 Meritorious Performance Award, Sonoma State University
- 1984 Meritorious Performance Award, Sonoma State University
- 1978 "Honorary Okie" from State of Oklahoma
Publications by Gerald Haslam
Fiction- Okies: Selected Stories (1st edition, 1973, New West Publications, 2nd ed, 1974; 3rd ed, Peregrine-Smith, 1975)
- Masks: A Novel (Old Adobe Press, 1976)
- The Wages of Sin: Collected Stories (Duck Down Press/ Windriver Books, 1980)
- Hawk Flights: Visions of the West (Seven Buffaloes Press, 1983)
- Snapshots: Glimpses of the Other California (Devil Mountain Books, 1985)
- The Man Who Cultivated Fire (Capra Press, 1987)
- That Constant Coyote: California Stories (Univ. of Nevada Press, 1990)
- Condor Dreams & Other Fictions (Univ.of Nevada Press, 1994)
- The Great Tejon Club Jubilee (Devil Mountain Books, 1996)
- Manuel and the Madman (Thwack! Pow! Productions, 2000)
- Straight White MaleStraight White MaleStraight White Male, a novel by California writer Gerald Haslam, won the Western States Arts Federation Book Award for Fiction and the Foreword Magazine Award in 2000....
(Univ. of Nevada Press, 2000) - Haslam's Valley (Heyday BooksHeyday BooksHeyday Books is an independent nonprofit publisher based in Berkeley, California.Heyday was founded by Malcolm Margolin in 1974 when he wrote, typeset, designed, and distributed The East Bay Out, a guide to the natural history of the hills and bayshore around Berkeley and Oakland...
, 2005) - Grace Period (Univ. of Nevada Press, 2006)
Non-Fiction
- The Language of the Oil Fields (Old Adobe Press, 1972)
- Voices of a Place: Social and Literary Essays from the Other California (Devil Mountain Books, 1987)
- Coming of Age in California (Devil Mountain Books 1990; second, expanded edition, 2000)
- The Other California (Capra Press, 1990; second, expanded edition, Univ. of Nevada Press, 1994)
- The Great Central Valley: California's Heartland (with photographers Stephen Johnson & Robert Dawson; Univ. of California Press, 1993)
- Workin' Man Blues: Country Music in California (Univ. of California Press, 1999)
- In Thought and Action: The Enigmatic Life of S. I. Hayakawa (with Janice E. Haslam; Univ. of Nebraska Press, 2011)
Anthologies
- (ed.) Forgotten Pages of American Literature (Houghton-Mifflin, 1970)
- (ed.) Western Writing (University of New Mexico Press, 1974)
- (ed. with James D. Houston) California Heartland: Writing from the Great Central Valley (Capra Press, 1978)
- (ed. with J. Golden Taylor, et al.) Literary History of the American West (Texas Christian University Press, 1987)
- (ed.) Many Californias: Literature from the Golden State (University of Nevada Press, 1992; second edition, 1999)
- (ed. with Alexandra R. Haslam) Where Coyotes Howl and Wind Blows Free: Growing Up in the West (Univ of Nevada Press, 1995)
- (ed.) Jack London's Golden State: Selected California Writings (Heyday Books, 1999)
Booklets and Monographs
- William Eastlake (Steck-Vaughn Southwest Writers' Series, 1970)
- (ed.) Afro-American Oral Literature (Harper & Row, 1974)
- Jack Schaefer (Boise State University Western Writers' Series, 1976)
- Voices of a Place: The Great Central Valley (California Academy of Sciences, 1986)
- Lawrence Clark Powell (Boise State University Western Writers' Series, 1992)
- (with Stephen Glasser) Out of the Slush Pile (Poets & Writers Inc., 1993)
- The Horned Toad (Thwack! Pow! Productions, 1995)
- An Instructor's Guide to Where Coyotes Howl and Wind Blows Free (Univ. of Nevada Press, 1996)
- Gerald Haslam in Conversation with Jonah RaskinJonah RaskinJonah Raskin is an American writer who left an East Coast university teaching position to participate in the 1970s radical counterculture as a free-lance journalist, then returned to the academy in California in the 1980s to write probing studies of Abbie Hoffman and Allen Ginsberg and reviews of...
(Sonoma County Literary Arts Guild, 2006)