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English & Creative Writing Dept.
School of Arts, Humanities and Communications
Susquehanna University
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 Gary
Fincke
Gary
Fincke is a Professor of English
& Creative Writing and director of The
Writers Institute.
Specializing in creative writing,
he teaches introductory and advanced workshops in poetry,
fiction, and creative nonfiction, as well as overseeing
independent writing projects, practica, and internships
for writing majors.
Winner of the 2003 Flannery O’Connor
Prize for Short Fiction for his collection, Sorry
I Worried You, Dr. Fincke has published nineteen
books of poetry, short fiction, an nonfiction, most
recently Standing Around the Heart (poems, Arkansas,
2005), Sorry I Worried You (stories, Georgia,
2004), and Amp'd: A Father's Backstage Pass,
a nonfiction account of his son's life as a rock guitarist
in the band Breaking Benjamin (Michigan State, 2004).
His next book, The Canals of Mars: A Memoir,
will be published by Michigan State in 2008. Later in
2008, the University of Arkansas Press will publish
his next collection of poems, The Fire Landscape.
Winner of the Bess Hokin Prize from
Poetry Magazine and the Rose Lefcowitz Prize
from Poet Lore, Dr. Fincke has received a PEN
Syndicated Fiction Prize as well as seven fellowships
for creative writing from the Pennsylvania Council on
the Arts. His poems, stories, and essays have appeared
in such periodicals as Harper's, Newsday, The Paris
Review, The Kenyon Review, The Georgia Review, American
Scholar, and Doubletake. Twice awarded Pushcart
Prizes for his work and cited nine times in the past
eleven years for a "Notable Essay" in Best
American Essays, Dr. Fincke has just had his prize-winning
essay "The Canals of Mars" reprinted in The Pushcart
Essays, an anthology of the best nonfiction printed
during the first twenty-five years of the Pushcart Prize
volumes. His story, “The Blazer Sestina,”
won the George Garrett Fiction Prize, another recent
story, “There’s Worse,” was cited in
the 2007 O Henry Awards Volume, and his essay “Cemeteries”
was awarded the Lewis Prize for Nonfiction from the
magazine Weber Studies.
Dr. Fincke also writes a bi-weekly
newspaper column, which is often distributed by Scripps-Howard.
Recent columns have been reprinted in the Atlanta
Constitution, The Cleveland Plain-Dealer, The Sacramento
Bee, and dozens of other newspapers throughout the
United States and Canada.
Coach of the men's tennis team from
1981 to 2001, Dr. Fincke had more than 145 career wins
and five league championships during his tenure. He
lives with his wife Elizabeth in Selinsgrove. Two of
his children, Derek (Copy Director, Klunk & Millan
Advertising) and Shannon (artist and teacher), graduated
from Susquehanna in English and Art; the third, Aaron,
attended Duquesne, and after touring with the rock band
Lifer (Universal/Republic Records), plays guitar with
the band Breaking Benjamin (Hollywood Records).
E-mail
Gary Fincke
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Standing
Around The Heart (Poetry, 2005):
University of Arkansas Press
"Standing around the Heart
shows Gary Fincke at his inimitable best, careless
of fads and schools, handy with a great range
of subjects, but, at the core, Romantic, preternaturally
alert, fond of stories, and as drawn to wisdom
as to comedy. Fincke writes a poetry of abiding
generosity, of true feeling and thought. His is
an essential American voice."
-- Rodney Jones, author of The Kingdom of
the Instant
"For Fincke, knowledge leads
us to the heart, to joy and sorrow-- and the result
is always a marvelous poetry that is both accessible
and yet strange, both true and yet mysterious."
-- Andrew Hudgins, author of Ecstatic in the
Poison
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Sorry I Worried You (Fiction, 2004):
University of Georgia Press
"Gary Fincke writes wonderfully
quirky, unpredictable stories full of vivid characters
and unforgettable details and moments. There's
a lovely, hilariously wry sense of humor at work
here, but there's also a truly heartfelt compassion
for the lives of ordinary working folks-- those
little failures and triumphs that make a reader
gasp in both recognition and wonder. This is a
remarkable collection."
-- Dan Chaon, author of You Remind Me of Me
"Sorry I Worried You
is remarkable . . . each story so immediate and
engaging that you're pushed straight through to
the finish. . . . the stories rely on simple humanity
drawn in straight, indelible lines."
-- Andrew Irvin, New York Times Book Review
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Amp'd
(Nonfiction, 2004): Michigan State University Press
"Amp'd is a wild ride,
a father's blow-by-blow account of his son's sudden
rise from gritty local clubs to the shark-and-groupie-infested
waters of national stardom. Studded with revealing
anecdotes and inside knowledge of the music business,
Gary Fincke's highly readable memoir is a unique
contribution to the literature of rock and roll."
--Tom Perrotta
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Writing
Letters for the Blind (Poems, 2003):
Ohio State University Press
Winner of the 2003 Ohio State
University Press/The Journal Award in poetry
"This book is deep and wide,
making use of history, science, medicine, and
folklore, yet it is accessible from the beginning
to end, poems of significance that will have an
audience."
--David Citino
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The
Stone Child (Stories, 2003): University
of Missouri Press
"Gary Fincke is one of literary
America's best kept secrets. He is a terrific,
no-nonsense writer, and The Stone Child
is his best work to date. These stories quietly
examine the mysteries and complications of contemporary
life with seriousness and great compassion."
--Robert Boswell
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Blood
Ties: Working-Class Poems (Poems,
2002): Time Being Books
"I am moved by how deeply these
poems engage working-class experiences, the intersection
between the personal and the historical, the flawed,
overlooked, and often forgotten side of our daily
realm. Blood Ties memorializes the past
and honors the life lived. It is a book to be
remembered."
--Edward
Hirsch, author of On Love and How
to Read a Poem and Fall in Love
with Poetry
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Almanac
for Desire (Poems, 2000): BkMk
Press, University of Missouri
"Gary Fincke engages those large ideas that shape the fabric
of family and community over the course of time.
And he does it without giving up intensity of
language or his poet's capacity for introspection.
His voice vibrates with originality and substance.
These are ambitious, serious, breathtaking poems."
--Greg Michalson
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Emergency
Calls (Stories, 1996): University
of Missouri Press
"These ten stories are little
gems. Gary Fincke is a terrific writer.
His situations develop fast and are immediately
engaging. His characters are memorable,
occasionally eccentric, always believeable. He
creates his effects without ever appearing to
try very hard."
--Steve Yarbrough
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Inventing
Angels (Poems, 1994): Zoland Books
"The appearance of Inventing
Angels is a happy occasion, for this collection
of poignantly wise poems announces to the world
that Gary Fincke has taken his place in the first
rank of American poets of his generation."
--David Citino
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For
Keepsies (Stories, 1993): Coffee
House Press
"With a keen ear for dialogue
and an eye for the right detail, Gary Fincke creates
lives that have slipped their middle-class moorings
and gone inexplicably adrift. He guides
us through the wreckage of these baffled hearts
desperate to communicate themselves, and he does
it with an intelligence and wit that makes us
all seem ultimately salvageable."
--Clint McCown, editor of The Beloit Fiction
Journal
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The
Double Negatives of Living (Poems,
1992): Zoland Books
"Gary Fincke doesn't flinch from
what life can do to us, but, instead, he faces
it head on with honesty and rhythmical work mastery...
I respect him for this courage, and I admire his
poetry for finding the words and rhythms to express
his vision in such a fine way."
--Len Roberts, author of Sweet Ones & Black
Wings
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