Biography

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George Guida's early years were marred by spotty literary production. After graduating from Malverne High School, he attended Columbia University, where he earned a BA in English. He went on to get a Doctorate in English from The City University of New York, where he studied with Allen Ginsberg, Grace Schulman, Morris Dickstein and Robert Viscusi.

For over a decade, George has taught English and creative writing at New York City College of Technology (CUNY), where he is an associate professor, and since 2001 has taught Italian American and Immigration Studies at Stony Brook University. In addition to teaching, George hosts readings at Smalls Jazz Club and student poetry slams at the Bowery Poetry Club. He has also taught in the Savage Mountain Creative Writing Summer Program and the Controlled Burn Workshop for Young Writers. He has recently returned to his Long Island hometown, from which he occasionally escapes to a faraway plot of arable land.

George's publications include the forthcoming collection, The Pope Stories and Other Tales of Interesting Times  (2011), New York and Other Lovers: Poems (Smalls Books, 2008), Low Italian: Poems (Bordighera, 2006), a finalist for the Bordighera Poetry Prize; The Pope Stories (The Sutton Press, 2005), a chapbook; and The Peasant and the Pen (Lang, 2003), a book of critical essays. His writing appears in Alimentum, Barrow Street, The Columbia Journal of American Studies, Controlled Burn, Hurricane Blues, Inkwell, J Journal, The Journal of Popular Culture, Literature and Gender, The Paterson Literary Review, Poetry New York, Rain Taxi, Valley Voices, Voices in Italian Americana, and other journals and collections. He has just completed a play based on The Pope Stories, and is at work on a book about an Italian restaurant in Brooklyn, with the chef/restaurateur Thomas Verdillo.