George Gurtner has twice been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and was twice named “Sports Writer of the Year” by the Louisiana Sports Writers Association (LSWA). In addition, he has won more than 75 awards for his writing from the LSWA, Press Club of New Orleans, Catholic Press Association, National Society of Technical Communicators, Louisiana-Mississippi Associated Press and the Louisiana Press Association, among others. He has lectured in creative writing and communications on the high school and undergraduate levels. Gurtner is a former member of the board of directors of the Press Club of New Orleans, the United Way Speakers Bureau, the Archbishop’s Horizons Campaign to build homes for the elderly and the Committee for the Papal Visit to New Orleans. He is an Oblate of St. Benedict and a retreat captain at the Christian Life Center of St. Joseph Abbey. His first book, Historic Churches of Old New Orleans is in its third printing. His next book, Cookin’ for the Mob, is due out in the Spring of 2011.
Gurtner has five adult children, one grandchild and one great grandchild. He is a native of New Orleans’ Irish Channel, and lives in a suburb of New Orleans. His hobbies include gardening, study of the Greek and Roman empires and the practice of Zen meditation with application to monastic Christian contemplation. In addition, he is a fair to middlin’ pool hustler.
