Writer In Residence

Critically acclaimed author Jane Hamilton will be the visiting writer for the Columbia College Chicago Fiction Writing Department for the spring semester. The award-winning author, who has written six novels, 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.

The 17th Annual Story Week Festival of Writers: Vision and Voice, will be held March 17-22. Hamilton will take part in the 11 a.m. panel on Thursday, March 21, entitled “From Truth To Fiction,” with fellow writers Patricia Ann McNair (“Temple of Air”) and Shawn Shiflett (“Hidden Place”). She will also participate in the 6 p.m. event that same day, “Literary Rock & Roll: ‘Girl Trouble,’” which will feature readings and signings by Hamilton and authors Gillian Flynn (“Gone Girl”) and Joe Meno (“Office Girl”). Hamilton appeared at the very first Story Week Festival of Writers and has also participated at subsequent Story Week Festivals and presentations.

Two of Hamilton’s novels, “The Book of Ruth” and “A Map of the World,” were selected by Oprah for her Book Club, with Hamilton’s debut novel, “The Book of Ruth,” earning the distinction as the first ever Book Club selection. Hamilton’s most recent novel, “Laura Rider's Masterpiece¸” was published in 2009. In 1998, she won the Heartland Prize, was a finalist for the Orange Prize in 1999, 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. She has also published essays and stories in magazines and newspapers.