Who Is Denise Giardina?

In 1951 I was born in Bluefield and grew up in a McDowell County coal camp. My father, Dennis, was a company bookkeeper, and my mother, Leona, was a nurse. My grandfather and two uncles were coal miners. I have a brother, Frank, who is three years younger. In 1963 my father was laid off and we moved to Kanawha County.

I graduated from DuPont High School, where I was a Merit Scholarship Finalist, in 1969. West Virginia Wesleyan College awarded me a scholarship and I graduated with an honors degree in history and political science in 1973. I have a Masters Degree in Theology from Virginia Theological Seminary (Episcopal) in Alexandria, Virginia. I am a lay preacher in the Episcopal Church, and an active member of St. Johns Episcopal Church in Charleston.

Over the years I have written four award-winning novels, Good King Harry, Storming Heaven, The Unquiet Earth, and Saints and Villains, and a TV program, The Gift Horse for West Virginia Public Television. I also appeared in WVPTV's West Virginia: A Film History. I am writer-in-residence at West Virginia State College.

I have a history of community involvement, support for labor issues, environmental protection, and the fair taxation of coal and absentee-owned land. I believe in equal rights, equal treatment, and respect for the dignity of all human beings.