About Gary
Gary Stern has lived his life in New York City and sees himself as a reflection of this metropolis. Born in Manhattan, raised in Queens, he was exposed to the culture of Broadway, the professional sports teams of New York and jazz clubs like the Village Vanguard. He saw Ethel Merman in Gypsy for his tenth birthday, attended his first professional New York Rangers game at age five, and listened to Thelonius Monk and Dexter Gordon at the Village Vanguard.
A graduate of the City College of New York, Stern was trained as an English major by a department filled with scholars including Arthur Waldhorn, Frederick Karl, Arthur Zeiger, Tom Tashiro and Alice Chandler. Everything he has accomplished is a reflection of their teaching.
After graduating, he taught English in New York City public high schools for over a decade including 10 years at Hillcrest High School in Jamaica, Queens. He has also taught at New York Technical College in Brooklyn and the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan.
After publishing several articles in Playbill, Back Stage and American Theatre, he made the leap to full-time freelance writer. In the mid-1980s, he served as original editor of The West Side Spirit, a neighborhood weekly circulated to over 75,000 people. He then freelanced for a host of publications.
Stern lives in Greenwich Village with his wife, Judith, and owns a home in Saugerties, New York.