Born in 1959, in the wake of the Korean War, Garasamo Maccagnone is the middle child of five, the third son of Frank Maccagnone and the former Eugenia Zielinksi. His father, a Sicilian whose family emigrated prior to his birth in America, and his mother, a woman of Polish descent, raised their family in Fraser, Michigan in a home purchased on a GI loan.
Maccagnone’s father, once a promising artist enrolled at the prestigious Creative Arts program in Detroit, was forced to quit school when Maccagnone’s mother became pregnant. In five years the couple had four boys. Though economic times were good, without a college education, Maccagnone’s father sought employment in the various tool & die shops around Fraser. Being a former boxer and a devout union man caused Maccagnone’s father to win a lot of fights but lose a lot of jobs. The family struggled financially throughout the 60’s, sometimes having to live on food stamps in the long periods Maccagnone’s father experienced between jobs.
In the early 70’s, Maccagnone’s mother began working as a library assistant at the Fraser Public library. Just like the mother in St. John of the Midfield, Eugenia Zielinski, a highly intelligent woman, was promoted twice as an honor student at Dominican High, an all-girl’s Catholic school. The library assistant’s job was perfectly suited for her. The steady income provided the necessary financial support the family needed while the steady stream of books appearing at the house curbed the reading appetite of her middle son.
After graduating from Chippewa Valley High School, Maccagnone decided to pursue his two loves in college; baseball and literature. Maccagnone played two years of baseball at Macomb College while studying poetry and creative writing under Lawrence Pike. After a severe arm injury put his baseball career on hold, Maccagnone transferred in his third year to Wayne State and studied further under the noted author Sam Astrachan. With the coaxing of his older brother, Maccagnone transferred again to Western Michigan University, where he was fortunate enough to study under Herb Scott and Stuart Dybek. It was there, mainly under the tutelage of Dybek, that Maccagnone’s writing flourished. In his second year at WMU, he published his first poem in the campus poetry periodical.
During that period of time, Maccagnone met his wife Vicki while working during the summer in the mailroom of the Southfield, Michigan advertising agency named W.B. Doner. Though Maccagnone still wanted to revive his baseball dreams, with his arm still not recovered and his heart too far away from the girl he loved, Maccagnone left school and married Vicki in 1983. Maccagnone kicked around the advertising business for a couple of years, working in the broadcast and engineering departments, while freelancing as a copy writer and producer at night for clients unable to pay the normal high-end agency rates.
In 1985, Maccagnone decided to leave the advertising business to try his hand in an emerging airfreight industry. Along with a partner he met while freelancing, Maccagnone formed a company called, “Crate and Fly,” and led it from a storefront operation to a fifteen million dollar enterprise. The success of his nation wide business did not go unnoticed by business magazines and state wide political organizations. Named to Crain’s 40 under 40 exclusive lists of top young business people, Maccagnone was soon courted by the Republican Party to run for political office. After creating an exploratory committee and hiring a campaign manager, Maccagnone learned the political game quickly when former Governor John Engler tried to strong arm Maccagnone’s campaign. Too much like his father, Maccagnone fought the establishment of the Party until he alienated the elite Party brass and they cut off his funding. Maccagnone thus aborted his political ambitions by bowing out of his 10th district congressional race, disallowing Engler and the Party time to find a suitable candidate to run against David Bonior.
As a political life was not compatible to his wife Vicki, the family returned to normalcy with Maccagnone continuing to run his thriving business. It was at that time, in the mid 90’s that Maccagnone decided to fulfill the promise of his writing career, by first penning the children’s book, “The Suburban Dragon,” and then following up with a collection of short stories and poetry entitled, “The Affliction of Dreams.” During that time Maccagnone was first introduced to the sport of soccer when his wife Vicki signed his oldest son Garret up to play in an AYSO league. She also, without his consent, signed Maccagnone to be the team coach, even though he had never played the game seriously in his life.
After good reviews on his books but mild sales, Maccagnone decided to turn his back on writing to devote all his time to his work and his children. Along with a few partners, Maccagnone created a new soccer club for kids who weren’t getting a look from the established clubs in the state. Within four years, Maccagnone’s club was able to compete against the top soccer clubs, not only in the state but across the nation. The success of the soccer club led to Maccagnone and a couple of partners reaching a deal on a new indoor soccer training arena called the Premier Training Center.
After selling his business, “Crate and Fly,” in 2001, Maccagnone entered a period of introspection. After reading the works of Russel Kirk, Flannery O’Connor, T.S. Eliot, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jim Harrison, Ernest Hemingway and others, Maccagnone was inspired to renew his writing career. An idea for a book had been burning in his mind ever since he met the former world class soccer player named Jordan Mitkov twelve years earlier. In the summer of 2007 Maccagnone re-released his earlier books through Booksurge Publishing. After being well received both critically and commercially, Maccagnone followed up by writing his first novel, St. John of the Midfield.
Garasamo “Gary” Maccagnone lives today in Shelby Township, Michigan, with his wife Vicki and three children. At this time, he is researching the location for his second novel, tentatively titled, “He Lay Low.”
