Philip Gerard is the author of five novels, eight works of nonfiction, and numerous essays on history, music, and writing craft. He teaches in the BFA and MFA Programs of the Department of Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, where he has won a number of awards for teaching excellence. He is co-editor with his wife, Jill Gerard, of Chautauqua, the literary journal of the Chautauqua Institution, and serves on the faculty of Goucher College's summer residency MFA program in Creative Nonfiction. Gerard, an avid musician, incorporates bluegrass, folk, country, and original compositions into his readings, playing six- and twelve-string guitar, dobro, banjo, and pedal steel guitar. He and Jill live in Wilmington, NC, on Whiskey Creek near the Intracoastal Waterway.