Rosemary Gard

In the tradition of writers such as Ernest Hemingway and Boris Pasternak, Rosemary Gard writes powerful and compelling works of fiction based in reality. Her works feature richly-drawn fictional characters based upon a canvas of historical facts. Unlike other writers, Rosemary lived among the people upon which those characters are built. She has experienced the life of peasants in Croatia. It began when her immigrant parents sent her to live with her Croatian relatives in the 1950s because she wanted to date a local boy in Gary, Indiana who was not of Slavic ancestry. The boy eventually won over her parents and they married. He was then stationed in Italy with the U.S. Army where she again traveled to Europe, which allowed her to visit her relatives with all the entanglements of a wife of an American soldier trying to visit a Communist country. She grew up speaking a number of Slavic languages and learned Italian when she lived there. She was named Croatian Queen during the Gary, Indiana Golden Jubilee celebration of 1956.

Rosemary's books give readers a first-person account of the lives of her ancestors who drew water from a well, washed clothes in a stream, slept on straw mattresses, cooked on clay stoves, and worked in the fields. Her works are filled with passion for her characters, written with an intimate knowledge of a different time and a sharp eye for historical accuracy.