"G" is for Greer, Bernard Eugene (b. 1948)

"G" is for Greer, Bernard Eugene (b. 1948). Author. While working as a prison guard at Columbia's notorious Central Correctional Institution, Greer took creative writing classes at USC and later earned an MA in creative writing from Hollins College. He then worked on a fishing boat in Maine. During a long Maine winter, he began to forge his experiences as a prison guard into Slammer, his first novel. It was a critical and popular success. His second novel, Halloween, set in a southern coastal town merged the southern gothic family novel with a thriller—and was a commercial success. In 1979 Greer returned to USC as a faculty member of the English Department's creative writing program. In the 1990s Bernard Eugene Greer became involved with journalistic and political writing as well as other nonfiction projects.