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AN EVENING WITH JANE HAMILTON.
Interviewed by Elizabeth George.

Jane Hamilton lives, works, and writes in an orchard farmhouse in Wisconsin. She grew up in Oak Park, Illinois, and graduated from Carleton College in 1979. Her first published works were short stories, "My Own Earth" and "Aunt Marj's Happy Ending," both published in Harper's Magazine in 1983. "Aunt Marj's Happy Ending" later appeared in The Best American Short Stories 1984.

Her first novel, “The Book of Ruth” (1988) won the PEN/Ernest Hemingway Foundation Award for best first novel, was an Oprah's Book Club selection in 1996, and was the basis for a 2004 television film of the same title.

In 1994, she published “A Map of the World” (1994), which was adapted for a film in 1999 and, the same year, was also an Oprah's Book Club selection. Her third novel, “The Short History of a Prince” (1998), was a Publishers Weekly Best Book of 1998. This book was also shortlisted for the 1999 Orange Prize. In 2000, Hamilton published “Disobedience” and was named a Notable Wisconsin Author by the Wisconsin Library Association.

In an interview with The Journal Times in Racine, WI(2006), Hamilton talked about her newest book, “When Madeline Was Young” and early inspiration for writing novels. As a student at Carleton College, she overheard a professor say she would write a novel one day. Hamilton had written only two short stories for the professor's class. Overhearing the conversation gave her confidence. "It had a lot more potency, the fact that I overheard it, rather than his telling me directly," she said.

Hamilton ’s most recent work, “Laura Rider's Masterpiece” was published in 2009.

"Fans of Jane Hamilton may do a double-take when they first lay eyes on the cover of "Laura Rider's Masterpiece," her witty and wicked new novel. That brawny man scooping up a swoony woman, the bottle blond, her shirt open down to there, the kitschy feel, the pulpy look. What's going on? It's Hamilton, known until now for serious and literary fiction, writing black comedy and having a heck of a good time." -- The Chicago Tribune

Ms Hamilton will be interviewed by Elizabeth George, and local artists Vito Zingarelli, Shelley Hartle, and Patsy Brereton will read selctions from "Laura Rider's Masterpiece."







About Elizabeth George.

Elizabeth George is a graduate of University of California in Riverside . She also attended California State University at Fullerton , where she was awarded a master's degree in Counseling/Psychology and an honorary doctorate of humane letters.

Professionally, she started out as a teacher. She was employed at Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana initially, but there she gave in to her bent for organized labor and was summarily fired along with ten other teachers for union activity. She moved on to El Toro High School in El Toro, California (now called Lake Forest, California), where she remained for the rest of her career as high school English teacher. While employed there, she was selected Orange County Teacher of the Year, a tribute in part to the work she'd done with remedial students for nearly a decade. She left education after thirteen and a half years when she sold her first novel, “A Great Deliverance,” to her longtime publisher Bantam Books.

She has won the Anthony Award, the Agatha Award, and France 's Le Grand Prix de Literature Policiere for her novel, for which she was also nominated for the Edgar and the Macavity Awards. She has also been awarded Germany 's MIMI for her novel “Well-Schooled in Murder.”

Most of her novels have been filmed by for television by the BBC (The Inspector Lynley Mysteries) and have been broadcast in the US on PBS's Mystery.


About The Literary Series.

Whidbey Island Center for the Arts and the Hedgebrook retreat for women writers have partnered to create a program that brings together writers and book-lovers. The Literary Series offers intimate conversations with bestselling Hedgebrook authors and a chance to see local artists bring excerpts of the authors’ works to life in short, staged readings.

Stacie Burgua (WICA Executive Director), Amy Wheeler (Hedgebrook Executive Director), Deana Duncan (WICA Production Director), Vito Zingarelli (Hedgebrook Residency Director), Jason Dittmer (WICA Director of Marketing), M. Louise McKay (Hedgebrook Director of Donor Relations & Fund Development)


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