Jane Hamilton announced as visiting writer for spring semester 2013

The Fiction Writing Department is delighted to announce that award-winning author Jane Hamilton will be a visiting writer for spring semester 2013. Widely praised as one of the best writers of our generation, Hamilton will participate in the Story Week Festival of Writers and other events in addition to teaching a Fiction Seminar class and working with students on manuscripts.

Ms. Hamilton is the widely acclaimed author of six novels, the first of which, The Book of Ruth, was Oprah's first Book Club selection. Hamilton’s A Map of the World was chosen for the same honor three years later. Both of these novels were also adapted for the screen. Hamilton’s most recent novel is Laura Rider's Masterpiece, of which the Chicago Tribune reviewer said, "What got Hamilton so riled up? Who cares?  Laura Rider's Masterpiece is dark and knowing, lovely and funny—and, in that it gives intellectual prigs an equally hard time, is quite democratic. Love, as Laura discovers and Jenna proves, makes monkeys of us all."  

In addition to her novels, Jane Hamilton has published a number of stories and essays in well-respected magazines and newspapers. She was the 1998 winner of the Heartland Prize, a finalist for the Orange Prize, and won the Pen/Ernest Hemingway Foundation Award in 1989. Her novel Disobedience was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and When Madeline was Young was named a best book of 2006 by the Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, and the Seattle Times.

Ms. Hamilton appeared at the very first Story Week Festival of Writers. She appeared again some years later at a special Story Week/Fiction Writing Department presentation for the Associated Writers and Writing Programs convention, where she read alongside Lorrie Moore. Patty McNair then interviewed both of them before a packed house in the Palmer House ballroom.

We are very pleased to welcome Ms. Hamilton back to the Fiction Writing Department for a more extended stay.  Personable, knowledgeable, and experienced, she will be a wonderful teacher for students in the program.