Kristina Gaddy an award-winning writer who believes in the power of narrative nonfiction to bring stories from the past to life in order to inform the world we live in today.
Photo by Beth Mickalonis.
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In her debut nonfiction book Flowers in the Gutter (Dutton 2020), she tells the true story of the teenage Edelweiss Pirates who fought the Nazis. Through narratives based on memoirs, oral history interviews, and Nazi documents, she immerses the reader in the world of these teenagers as they resist the Third Reich.
Her next book Well of Souls: Music, Dance, Spirituality, and the Early Banjo (W.W. Norton 2022) is a literary exploration of the little known history of the banjo in the Americas, its role as a spiritual device in the hands of enslaved Africans, and the instrument's legacy in today's culture and society. In 2018, Kristina received a Robert W. Deutsch Foundation Ruby's Artist Award to support the writing and researching of Well of Souls. She was also a 2019 Logan Nonfiction Fellow at the Carey Institute for Global Good and received a Parsons Award from the Library of Congress in 2020. |
Her writing explores and highlights forgotten and marginalized histories, and has appeared in The Washington Post, Baltimore magazine, Washington City Paper, Baltimore Sun, Bitch Magazine, Narratively, Proximity, Atlas Obscura, OZY, Shore Monthly and other smaller history and music publications. Her essay "Intersectional Landscapes" will appear in A Harp in the Stars: An Anthology of Lyric Essays (University of Nebraska Press 2021). In 2017, her story about a midwife in 1909 Baltimore was a finalist for Proximity Magazine's Narrative Journalism Prize and in earlier in 2017, she co-wrote and co-produced a radio segment for the Marc Steiner Show on the legacy of one of Baltimore's most well-known Confederate monuments.
She holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction Writing from Goucher College, where her thesis focused on the stories of doctors, public health workers, and midwives in the struggle for safe childbirth during the Progressive Era. Kristina sits on the board of the Baltimore City Historical Society, is on the planning committee of The Banjo Gathering, and is a member of the KnowYourHistory Collective.
She holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction Writing from Goucher College, where her thesis focused on the stories of doctors, public health workers, and midwives in the struggle for safe childbirth during the Progressive Era. Kristina sits on the board of the Baltimore City Historical Society, is on the planning committee of The Banjo Gathering, and is a member of the KnowYourHistory Collective.
Kristina came to writing by way of museums. At the Mount Clare Museum House in Baltimore, she co-curated an exhibit on the art and craft of modern teapots within the context of a colonial mansion. Though a Network to Freedom grant, she researched the manumission of enslaved African Americans held in bondage on the property. In 2009, she moved to West Virginia, where she worked with multiple organizations to promote heritage tourism through the Appalachian Forest Heritage Area. At the Upshur County Historical Society, she digitized and archived their local history collection; edited the reminiscences of a member of the community; and wrote for their journal. She produced a CD of field recordings from banjo player and ballad singer Currence Hammonds through the Augusta Heritage Center in Elkins, West Virginia, and assisted in the creation of exhibits at the Beverly Heritage Center.
Kristina graduated from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County with degrees in History and Modern Languages (German and Spanish). Her honors thesis focused on the German Historical Museum in Berlin, Germany and identity creation in museums.
In her free time, she weaves on a beautiful eight-harness floor loom from her great-aunt Suzzie; plays fiddle with banjo-maker Pete Ross; nerds out about banjos; and volunteers with non-profits that promote cancer awareness like There Goes My Hero, the Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults, and First Descents. You can contact here here.
Kristina graduated from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County with degrees in History and Modern Languages (German and Spanish). Her honors thesis focused on the German Historical Museum in Berlin, Germany and identity creation in museums.
In her free time, she weaves on a beautiful eight-harness floor loom from her great-aunt Suzzie; plays fiddle with banjo-maker Pete Ross; nerds out about banjos; and volunteers with non-profits that promote cancer awareness like There Goes My Hero, the Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults, and First Descents. You can contact here here.
