Author David Giffels to Speak at MassMu Brown Bag Lunch

Monday  |  March 2, 2015  |  10:26 AM

News Release:  Author David Giffels to Speak at MassMu Brown Bag Lunch  

David Giffels, author of The Hard Way on Purpose: Essays and Dispatches from the Rust Belt (Scribner, 2014) will speak at the Massillon Museum’s monthly Brown Bag Lunch on Tuesday, March 24, at 12:10 p.m. The program will conclude by 12:50 p.m. to accommodate those who wish to attend during the lunch hour. Brown Bag Lunch programs are free and open to everyone. Reservations are not required, but seats fill early.

Giffels, who has been called a “Rust Belt prophet,” writes and speaks with warmth and humor about the culture of his hometown Akron from its economic plummet into its renaissance. Books will be available for purchase and signing in the Museum shop, OHregionalities.

An assistant professor of English at the University of Akron, Giffels also wrote All the Way Home: Building a Family in a Falling-Down House (William Morrow/HarperCollins, 2008), which earned the Ohioana Book Award and topped Oprah’s O at Home magazine's “Fantastic Summer Reads” list. 

With Jade Dellinger, he co-authored Are We Not Men: We Are Devo! (SAF Publishing, 2003) and with Steve Love he collaborated on Wheels of Fortune: The Story of Rubber in Akron (University of Akron Press, 1998). Writing by Giffels has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, Grantland, Redbook, and other publications. He was a longtime columnist for the Akron Beacon Journal, a contributing commentator and essayist on National Public Radio station WKSU, and a writer for the MTV series Beavis and Butt-Head.

Recently, Giffels has received the Cleveland Arts Prize for literature, the Associated Press “Best News Writer in Ohio” award, and the National Society of Newspaper Columnists award for general excellence.

Since its inception twelve years ago, the Brown Bag Lunch series has been sponsored by Bates Printing. Guests may bring carry-out or a sack lunch; purchase lunch from Anderson’s in the City—the lobby café; or simply enjoy a complimentary cookie and coffee provided by the Massillon Museum.    

The Brown Bag Lunch series usually features local history, an art or history topic related to the Museum, or a landmark event in the nation’s past. Programs are held on the fourth Tuesday of every month, January through October.  

The Massillon Museum is located at 121 Lincoln Way East (Ohio 172) in downtown Massillon. For more information, call the Museum at 330-833-4061 or visit massillonmuseum.org.

Media Contacts:  

Alexandra Nicholis Coon, Massillon Museum Executive Director  -  330.833.4061
Scot Phillips, Massillon Museum Operations Officer  -  330.833.4061