David Giffels

David Giffels

Title: Professor, NEOMFA Campus Coordinator
Dept/Program: English, NEOMFA
Office: Olin 349
Phone: 330-972-6604
Email: dg36@uakron.edu
Website: http://www.davidgiffels.com
Curriculum Vitae: Download in PDF format

Biography

David Giffels teaches creative nonfiction writing workshops and literature courses, and serves on the faculty of the NEOMFA: Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts program in creative writing.

Professor Giffels is the author, most recently, of Barnstorming Ohio: To Understand America (Hachette Books 2020), named one of Library Journal’s “Best Books of 2020.” His previous books include the memoir Furnishing Eternity: A Father, a Son, a Coffin, and a Measure of Life (Scribner 2018), a New York Times Book Review “Editor’s Choice” and winner of the Ohioana Book Award. His collection The Hard Way on Purpose: Essays and Dispatches from the Rust Belt (Scribner 2014) was also a Times Book Review “Editor’s Choice” and longlisted for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay. His memoir All the Way Home (William Morrow/HarperCollins 2008) was a national bestseller and winner of the Ohioana Book Award.

He is the coauthor, with Jade Dellinger, of the rock biography Are We Not Men? We Are Devo! and, with Steve Love, Wheels of Fortune: The Story of Rubber in Akron.

His writing has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, the Atlantic.com, Parade, Wall Street Journal, Esquire.com, Grantland.com, The Iowa Review, and many other publications. He also was a writer for the MTV animated series Beavis and Butt-Head.

Publications

BOOKS:

  • Barnstorming Ohio: To Understand America. Hachette Books, New York, NY, 2020.
  • Furnishing Eternity: A Father, a Son, a Coffin, and a Measure of Life. Scribner, New York, NY, 2018.
  • The Hard Way on Purpose: Essays and Dispatches From the Rust Belt. Scribner, New York, NY, 2014.
  • All the Way Home: Building a Family in a Falling-down House. William Morrow/HarperCollins, New York, NY, 2008. (Paperback reprint, Harper, 2009.)
  • Are We Not Men? We Are Devo!. co-written with Jade Dellinger, SAF Publishing, London, 2003. (Paperback reprint, SAF Publishing, 2008.)                               
  • Wheels of Fortune: The Story of Rubber in Akron. co-written with Steve Love, University of Akron Press, Akron, Ohio, 1998.

BOOK CHAPTERS:

  • “Unreal Estates,” Essay introduction to The New Heartland: Looking for the American Dream. George F. Thompson Publishing, Staunton, VA, 2021.
  • “Here on the Ground.” Essay introduction to Rust Belt Chic: The Akron Anthology. Belt Publishing, Cleveland, 2016.
  • “Shirt-Worthy.” Essay in Moms and Dads: From the ‘Lives’ Columns of The New York Times Magazine (anthology). The New York Times Publishing Co., New York, NY, 2014.
  • “Lake Effect.” Essay in Rust Belt Chic: The Cleveland Anthology. Belt Publishing, Cleveland, 2012.
  • “The Secret Need for Octopus.” Foreword to West Point Market Cookbook. University of Akron Press, Akron, Ohio, 2008.
  •  “The Rubber Industry.” Article in The American Midwest: An Interpretive Encyclopedia. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 2006.
  • “Readin’, Writin’ and Route 21: The Road from West Virginia to Ohio.” Essay in The Appalachians: America’s First and Last Frontier, Random House, New York, NY, 2004.

 JOURNALS:

Creative nonfiction essays and journalism have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic (online), Parade, the Wall Street Journal, Esquire (online), Grantland (online), The Iowa Review, Redbook, This Old House Magazine, Cleveland Magazine, The Middle West Review, Lumina, Belt Magazine, Largehearted Boy (online), The Nervous Breakdown (online), Cleveland Scene, and the Akron Beacon Journal, among others.

Education

M.A., The University of Akron

Courses

Introductory and Advanced Creative Nonfiction Writing, MFA Creative Nonfiction Workshop, MFA Craft & Theory of Creative Nonfiction, Literary Ohio, Writers on Writing, Literary Nonfiction Writing.