Name Donald Gallinger Role Writer | Books The Master Planets | |
Occupation Novelist, Short story writer Genre Literary Fiction, Coming of Age Education Rowan University, Rutgers University, Connecticut College Similar People Bob Dylan, George Martin, Peter Sellers | ||
Donald Nelson Gallinger (born May 4, 1953) is an American writer. He is the author of several novels. His most recent work, The Master Planets (2008), which received strong reviews in Booklist, Jewish Book World, and ForeWord Magazine, tells the story of one Polish partisan fighter’s savagery during World War II and its devastating effects on her American family years later. Centering on the fictional woman’s teenage son, a Rock & Roll wunderkind, the novel seeks to show how the unknown past can reach into the unwary present and alter it forever.
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Early life
Donald Nelson Gallinger was born May 4, 1953 and raised in Norwich, Connecticut, Gallinger grew up hearing first-hand stories of World War II partisan fighters from friends of his parents. These stories, absorbed during childhood, possibly inspired a more scholarly interest in the politics of resistance later captured in The Master Planets.
Gallinger received his BA English from Connecticut College, his MA (English) from Rowan University, and his Doctorate (Education) from Rutgers University.
Career
Prior to writing the The Master Planets, Gallinger studied source materials at the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington DC, and from real-life accounts in books like The Bielski Brothers, The Avengers, and A Partisan's Memoir: Woman of the Holocaust. His love of Rock & Roll also permeates The Master Planets.
Currently he is working on his next novel, Stupid School, and a collection of short stories.
Gallinger is the recipient of awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Dodge Foundation, and the Johnson & Johnson Foundation (which funded his study of source materials at the U.S. Holocaust Museum). He lives in New Jersey, with his wife. His first completed novel, Ain’t No Sin to Rock and Roll, was optioned for film by Miles Chapin. His second, Tina's ’68 Mustang, is under revision. The Master Planets is Don’s third completed novel.
For 25 years Gallinger taught high school English in Southern New Jersey.