Denise Giardina:a short biography of West Virginia writer Denise Giardina

Denise Giardina

It's important to know that people fought back. When I found out that people fought back, I thought maybe I should, too.

Chilhood

Born in 1951 in the coal camp of Black Wolf near Bluefield, West Virginia
Her father was a bookkeeper at the Black Wolf coal company until its closure in 1964.
Giardina's grandfather, an Italian immigrant from Sicily, worked in the mines as did most of her uncles.

Attended West Virginia Wesleyan University and did graduate work at Marshall University.
A 1979 graduate of the Episcopalian Seminary in Alexandria, Virginia.
After graduating from the Seminary, Giardina became a writer instead of becoming an ordained minister

Her first novel Good King Harry, a historical novel about Henry V, is published in 1984
Giardina's second novel, Storming Heaven(1987), is based on the Battle of Blair Mountain, West Virginia.
The Unquiet Earth (1992) is a continuation of Storming Heaven which further addresses the injustices committed in West Virginia and Kentucky by the coal companies

Giardina's last two novels are heavily influenced by her personal experiences and also espouse her political beliefs
Giardina is proud of her Appalachian heritage and believes that writing is a way to educate people about Appalachia
and the miners who struggled for their freedom from a system that could be compared to feudalism.
Her belief that people of all classes and races shold work together comes from her experience as a union organizer.
Giardina's book tells a story; although West Virginia may come off with a negative image, she is merely recounting the horrors that stemmed from the Mine Wars.
She sees the Appalachian experience as universal because the theme of exploitation is the same all over the world.

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This page was created by Kathy Moore as a project for English 245--Appalachian Literature, West Virginia University.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please contact me at kmoore2@wvu.edu