Gary McIlroy's essays on Henry David Thoreau, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Annie Dillard have appeared in journals such as American Literature, South Atlantic Quarterly, and The Thoreau Quarterly, as well as in the anthologies Earthly Words (University of Michigan Press) and Contemporary American Criticism (Gale Press). His 2023 book, Turtles on a Black Gum Tree (Amazon KDP), offers a creative retelling of the life of Charles Ball, whose 1837 autobiography, Slavery in the United States, had not been reissued in a new edition for more than 150 years. His most recent novel, Beneath the Blushing Sky, set in 1965, is a coming-of-age story about a freshman basketball player caught up in the allure of a popular girl and the recklessness of his closest friend. His forthcoming novel, Miss Blue Jacket, is based on the life of Frances Maria Lloyd, mother of the great nineteenth-century abolitionist, William Lloyd Garrison.
Gary McIlroy's essays on Henry David Thoreau, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Annie Dillard have appeared in journals such as American Literature, South Atlantic Quarterly, and The Thoreau Quarterly, as well as in the anthologies Earthly Words (University of Michigan Press) and Contemporary American Criticism (Gale Press). His 2023 book, Turtles on a Black Gum Tree (Amazon KDP), offers a creative retelling of the life of Charles Ball, whose 1837...
Books
Beneath the Blushing Sky
Set in 1965, this coming-of-age story follows the freshman year of basketball player Lee Rollins, a shy and intelligent boy who is taken in by the romantic intrigue of three popular girls. His world is further rocked when his closest teammate is sent away for delinquent behavior. Lee's realization that friendships can be forged with girls as...
Turtles on a Black Gum Tree
Charles Ball was born into slavery in Calvert County, Maryland and served there under several masters until, at twenty-six, he was sold and taken to South Carolina as part of a fifty-person coffle. After nearly seven years of grueling and often intolerable treatment in South Carolina and Georgia, he fled Georgia and returned to Maryland. This...