Grubbies

About Ethan

A GrubStreet instructor since 2007, Ethan Gilsdorf is a journalist, memoirist, essayist, critic, poet, teacher, performer, and nerd. He is the author of the award-winning travel memoir investigation Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks (named a Massachusetts Center for the Book Mass Books Awards “Nonfiction Must-Read” and Nominated for the Alex Award by the Young Adult Library Services Association). Hundreds of his personal essays, articles, reviews, cultural commentaries, profiles, opinion pieces, short stories, and poems have appeared in the New York Times, New York Times Book Review, Washington Post, Esquire, Boston Globe, Wired, Salon, O (the Oprah Magazine), Huffington Post, National Geographic, Brevity, Poetry, Poets & Writers, The Southern Review, North American Review, among other publications. Twice his work has been named "Notable" by The Best American Essays. A regular presenter, performer, and event moderator, he’s been featured on NPR, The Discovery Channel, PBS, CBC, BBC; and in the documentary Revenge of the Geeks. His TEDx talk "Why Dungeons & Dragons is Good for You (In Real Life)" has 950,000 views (and counting). He has lectured at schools, festivals, and conventions worldwide. A former Paris-based food and film critic and travel writer, Gilsdorf is based in Providence, Rhode Island, where he works as a freelance journalist, and teaches essay, memoir, journalism and other creative writing workshops for adults and kids in Boston, Providence, and online for GrubStreet, the nation's largest independent writing center. The co-founder of GrubStreet's Young Adult Writers Program (YAWP), he is also the instructor of GrubStreet's 10-month Essay Incubator program, coordinates GrubStreet’s Providence classes, and is the lead instructor for the Westerly (RI) Memoir Project. He leads writing workshops for non-profit social justice organizations around the world, and also teaches creative writing and Dungeons & Dragons classes for younger students and adults, in schools, libraries and community centers. A former editor for Frank magazine and New Delta Review, Gilsdorf is the winner of the Hobblestock Peace Poetry Competition and the Esme Bradberry Contemporary Poets Prize. He has been awarded writer's residencies at the Millay Colony for the Arts, Vermont Studio Center and Writing Downtown (Las Vegas), and grants from the Somerville Arts Council and Vermont Arts Council. He is on the Advisory Council of The Game Academy (in San Francisco). He has also served on the Board of Directors of GrubStreet for ten years, and as a member of the Boston Book Festival Program Committee, the Boston Society of Film Critics, The Somerville Arts Council fellowship/nominating committee and the Windham (Vermont) Arts Council. He received his BA from Hampshire College, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Louisiana State University. Follow Ethan’s adventures at ethangilsdorf.com. YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/egilsdorf.