Gary Gildner, award-winning poet and author of "The Bunker In Parsley Fields," will speak at 12:15 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 9, in Dawson Auditorium as part of the Adrian College Convocation Series.

His new book "My Grandfather's Book," is the story of losing his grandfather as a young boy and finding inspiration in his grandfather's devotion to the author Joseph Conrad. Later on in life, he finds himself on a path of self-discovery that takes him from the Tatra Mountains in Eastern Europe back to the Clearwater Mountains of Idaho, where he now lives.

Gildner has written eight volumes of poetry, two collections of short stories, a novel, and two memoirs. He has been a Senior Fulbright Lecturer in Poland and the former Czechoslovakia. Gildner was the winner of the Iowa Poetry Prize in 1996 for "The Bunker In Parsley Fields." He was also the recipient of the National Magazine Award for Fiction, a Pushcart Prize, the Robert Frost Fellowship, and the William Carlos Williams and Theodore Roethke poetry prizes.

The convocation services are open to the public, and there is no admission charge.

Release by Rachel Jasinski.