State Library Services
1900 Kanawha Blvd. E.
Culture Center, Building 9
Charleston, WV 25305
Phone: (304) 558-2045
Email: wvlcref@wv.gov
Born and raised in the West Virginia coalfields, Denise Giardina is an ordained Episcopal Church deacon, a community activist, and a former candidate for governor of WV. Her novels, fictionalizing historical characters and events, have been critically acclaimed and recognized with a number of literary prizes.
Giardina grew up in a West Virginia coal mining camp called Black Wolf. Many family members worked in underground mines, but her mother was a nurse and her father a bookkeeper for a coal company. They moved to Charleston when the mining camp closed. She graduated from West Virginia Wesleyan College in 1973, later earning a Master’s in Divinity from the Virginia Theological Seminary.
Emily’s Ghost. New York: W.W. Norton, c2009.
Fallam's Secret. New York: W.W. Norton, c2003.
Good King Harry. New York: Ballantine Pub., 1999, c1984.
CT F GIARDINA Saints and Villians. New York: Fawcett, 1999, c1998.
Storming Heaven. New York : Ballantine Books, 1988, c1987.
Unquiet Earth. New York: Norton, c1992.
Backcountry: Contemporary Writing in West Virginia, edited by Irene McKinney. Morgantown [W.Va.]: Vandalia Press, 2002.
Appalachia a History of Mountains and People. A film series by Jamie Ross and Ross Spears. [Riverdale, MD]: Agee Films, [2009] Includes Denise Giardina.
Fallam's Secret. Denise Giardina talks with Gordon Simmons about Fallam's Secret. Charleston, WV: WVLC Video Services, p2003.
“Unquiet Earth”: An Environmental Fiction Novel. Ray George, host; Denise Giardina, guest. Charleston, WV: WVLC Video Studios, 1999. Giardina discusses her novel , “Unquiet Earth,” and her early coal camp childhood.
Gift Horse. Production of WNPB-TV Morgantown for West Virginia Public Television. Screenplay by Denise Giardina; produced by West Virginia Public Television; directed and edited by Tom Nicholson; produced by Chip Hitchcock, Benjamin Wolf. 1996
.2004 -- Included on the West Virginia Literary Map, From A Place Called Solid: West Virginia and its Writers, from the West Virginia Folk Life Center at Fairmont State University.
2002 -- Appalachian Heritage Writer–in-Residence at Shepherd University
2000 -- Lille D. Chaffin Award for Appalachian Writing from Morehead State University
1999 -- Fisk Fiction Prize, Saints and Villains
1998 -- Thomas and Lille D. Chaffin Award from Moorehead State University
1998 -- Emory and Henry College Literary Festival
1997 -- West Virginia Library Association Literary Merit Award
1996 -- National Endowment for the Arts Grant
1993 -- American Book Award, The Unquiet Earth
1992 -- Weatherford Award for Significant Appalachian Work, Fiction, Unquiet Earth
1992 -- Lillian Smith Book Award, Storming Heaven
1988 -- Appalachian Book of the Year, Saints and Villains
1988 -- National Endowment for the Arts Grant
1987 -- Weatherford Award for Significant Appalachian Work, Fiction, Storming Heaven
West Virginia Library Commission
1900 Kanawha Blvd East | Culture Center, Bldg. 9 | Charleston, WV 25305
In-State Toll Free : (800) 642-9021 | (304) 558-2041
WV.gov
