Our Dec. 15, 2019 Speaker will be Gary Steele: The Gypsy Family Circus of 1933: A Perspective on Prejudice and Hardship in a Real but Little-Known Minority |
Local author Gary G. Steele is of Gypsy descent and was raised on a circus. His culture immersed him in the art of story-telling. He became the first in the family to have formal education. After graduating from college, he was accepted for service in the US Peace Corps and spent three years in Niger, West Africa. Upon his return, he went to grad school at UF and then taught and ran programs at what became Santa Fe College. He wrote a college text, Shortcuts to Basic Writing Skills, Then in the 1980s he and his wife worked for five years in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo). Next they were based in the DC area and worked for consulting firms, doing short-term assignments in thirty developing countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Over the years, Mr. Steele wrote hundreds of technical documents, national implementation plans, curricula, etc. Gainesville has proved an ideal place to return to for retirement. Just out is his latest work, The Gypsy Family Circus of 1934; More Stories from a Long-Gone Era, a companion piece to The Gypsy Family Circus of 1933: Stories from a Long-Gone Era. Both are works of historical fiction, and both aim to offer information about and combat the prejudice his very small minority still suffers. Mr. Steele holds a B.A. from Loyola University of New Orleans and an M.A. in Literature and Linguistics from UF.