Gerald Haslam


Gerald William Haslam is an author who has focused on rural and small towns in California's Great Central Valley including its poor and working class people of all colors. A native of Oildale, California, Haslam has received numerous literary awards.

Early life and education

Haslam was born in Bakersfield, California in 1937. The son of an oil worker, he grew up in nearby Oildale. 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. 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, 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.

Career

Haslam was a professor of English at Sonoma State University from 1967 to 1997. As a professor emeritus at SSU, he has occasionally taught for the Oscher Lifelong Learning program. 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 and the life of a Depression migrant. Reviewer David Peck labeled Haslam "the quintessential California writer.".

Personal life

Haslam's wife, Janice E. Haslam, has edited all his books and co-authored of three of them. They reside in Penngrove, California. 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.

Literary awards

Fiction