On Thursday night in Blackington Hall, nonfiction writer Ben Gwin read an excerpt from his book, Team Building: A Memoir about Family and the Fight for Worker’s Rights. The event was free and open to the public.
Gwin’s memoir presents a candid experience relative to a broad audience. Anyone who has worked under a company may share sentiments toward the narrator’s frustrations with his job.
Gwin begins the book intriguingly with a story about his own hemorrhoid surgery.
“I left the hospital with a catheter and a bottle of Oxycodone. I put my hand down the front of my sweatpants and held the empty urinary bag next to my thigh so it wouldn’t jostle while I walked.”
His narrator works at a branch of Google in Pittsburgh, but he was hired through a third party. Because of this, Gwin’s autobiographical protagonist had different rules applied to him that affected his pay and his time after getting his surgery.
One of these instances is in the book, where Gwin explains how instead of taking some days off for a critical surgery, he instead has to take the entire week off without pay. This was the case for every time he had to take time off, even if it was a day.
Team Building also tells a story of the struggle of being a single parent and witnessing addiction ravage the lives of loved ones. He introduces the readers to Gracie, the narrator’s daughter, and Jane, the narrator’s ex-wife. Jane suffers from addiction, leaving the narrator to solely support Gracie on his own, attempting to be the best parent he can.
During the Q&A portion of the book reading, Gwin responded to questions from the crowd of professors and students about his journey, his resilience, and his passion for writing.
When he was asked about making a union at Google, Gwin lit up calling it the best thing he had ever done.
A student asked about his writing process and how he was able to stay honest and concise in his story while still protecting his daughter and loved ones.
“I changed her name,” Gwin said.
“I’m a writer first. I try to write nonfiction that’s honest. I try to make it relatable to a bigger idea,” he said.
Another student asked what advice Gwin can give to aspiring writers to which Gwin responded, “Write as much as you can, read as much as you can, and help other writers out. Don’t be an asshole.”
Team Building and Clean Time can both be found online in ebook and paperback.
The Fall reading series is comprised of three authors who come to UPJ to read their work to students. Two more authors will be coming to UPJ this semester. Every series begins with a master class from the author an hour before the reading.
The series is coordinated by the writing faculty and presented by Professor Marissa Landrigan. Commenting on these opportunities, Professor Landrigan said that the “reading series serves as reminders that writing is a thing people do in the real world and not just a thing for an assignment.”
The next writer will be Jessica Jopp, who will present her work Oct. 19. The last will be a poet Cameron Barnett on Nov. 2.
In the spring, writing faculty will invite a nationally recognized poet to read from his or her work: Poetry Reading planned; Dr. Eric Schwerer will coordinate this event in late March.