Gerald Haslam

Haslam was born in Bakersfield, California in 1937.[1] The son of an oil worker, he grew up in nearby Oildale.[1] He attended 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 College 1955-'57, 1960–61, then married Janice E. Pettichord in 1961.[1] He then attended San Francisco State University, where he earned a B.A in 1963 and an M.A. in 1965. Haslam also attended, and gives great credit to, Washington State University, 1965 and 1966. He completed a Ph.D. from The Union Graduate School (Cincinnati, OH), in 1980. He 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.

Haslam was a professor of English at Sonoma State University (SSU) from 1967 to 1997. As a professor emeritus at SSU, he has occasionally taught for the Oscher Lifelong Learning program (Sonoma State University). He taught one course a year for the Fromm Institute for Lifelong Learning at the University of San Francisco from 2001-2015.

During his time at SSU, Haslam published numerous articles and stories in national and regional magazines. He was a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle's Sunday magazine and was a Contributing Writer for the Los Angeles Times Sunday magazine, and continues to be an op-ed contributor to the Sacramento Bee. Haslam also served for a time as a commentator for KQED-FM's "The California Report." His writing is widely anthologized.

With his wife Janice E. Haslam, Haslam examined the life of Senator S. I. Hayakawa (In Thought and Action: The Enigmatic Life of S. I. Hayakawa) and the life of a Depression migrant (Leon Patterson: A California Story). Reviewer David Peck labeled Haslam "the quintessential California writer." ("Gerald Haslam. the Heartland's Voice," The Californians, Jan.-Feb., 1988).

Haslam's wife, Janice E. Haslam,[1] has edited all his books and co-authored of three of them. They reside in Penngrove, California.[1] They are the parents of Fred Haslam, lead developer of Sim City 2000; of "Anomalies" website developer Garth Haslam; and of magazine editor Alexandra Russell, who has been her father's partner on two books. Two other Haslam progeny—research biologist Simone Haslam Sawyer and Vivarium manager Carlos Haslam—are not involved in writing/publishing.

• 2016 Eric Hoffer Legacy Fiction Award (from US Review of Books) for Grace Period
• 2016 Eric Hoffer Culture Award, Honorable Mention, (from US Review of Books) for Leon Patterson: A California Story
• 2013 Award of Merit (from the American Association for State and Local History) for In Thought and Action
• 2013 S. I. Hayakawa Book Prize (from the Institute of General Semantics) for In Thought and Action
• 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 the 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 the 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 Prize (for "The Man Who Cultivated Fire")
• 1971 Honorable Mention, Joseph Henry Jackson Award (for "Okies")
• 1969 Arizona Quarterly Award (for "The Subtle Thread")

Breiger, Marek., "Haslam's Oildale, Our California," California English, 28:4 (September/October, 1992); Dunn, Geoffrey, "Central Valley Boys," San Francisco Review of Books, 16:1 (Summer, 1991); Houston, James D., "Gerald Haslam's The Other California," California History, LXXII:3 (Fall 1993); Locklin, Gerald, "The Emergence of Gerald Haslam," Small Press Review April, 1989; Locklin, Gerald. "Gerald Haslam," Dictionary of Literary Biography, Number 99 (1989); Locklin, Gerald. "Gerald Haslam," Updating the Literary West]], Texas Christian University Press, 1997; Locklin, Gerald. Gerald Haslam, Western Writers Series, Boise, ID., No.77 (1989); Locklin, Gerald & Charles Stetler, "Interview with Gerald Haslam," Home Planet News, 4:3 (Fall 1983; Maloney, Mary Grace, Central Valley Mythology: The Works of Gerald Haslam, Honors Humanities Thesis, Stanford University, 1985; Peck, David,, "Gerald Haslam, the Heartland's Voice," The Californians, Jan-Feb 1988; Penna, Christina, "Heartland," California English 23:2 (March–April 1987); Ronald, Ann, "Gerald Haslam and Ann Ronald: A Conversation," Western American Literature, XXX:3 (August 1987); Siegel, Mark,, "Contemporary Trends in Western American Fiction," A Literary History of the American West (Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 1978; Speer, Laurel, "Harry and Gerry." Small Press Review, June, 1988; Starr, Kevin,, "Six Californias and the Central Valley," State Librarian's Weekly Column (online), May 19, 1995; Weeks, Jonina, A Contemporary Western Writer, Gerald Haslam: His Means to a New West and the World, Sonoma State University Master's Thesis, 1988; Wylder, Delbert, "Recent Western Fiction," Journal of the West, January 1988

• Gerald W. Haslam page on Nevada County, CA Library site
• Gerald Haslam's Website
• International Who's Who of Authors and Writers 2004, Routledge, 2003, ISBN 978-1-85743-179-7
• Gerald M. Haslam research materials, MSS 1998, at L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Brigham Young University