'Just grow up and write'

 

“I don't mean it to sound egomaniacal, but in a way, for me, it was very useful to imagine that I was the only one who was taking pen in hand. I'd always been told that it was impossible to be published, so I was writing only for myself.” – Jane Hamilton

 

Born in Illinois in July of 1957, Hamilton was the youngest of five children and started writing early, accumulating prizes for poetry and short stories even before she was out of high school.    

 

 At Carleton College in Minnesota, she continued along her literary pathway, earning a degree in English and then heading off to an internship at Dell Publishing for Children.   But she got sidetracked enroute, meeting her husband-to-be in Wisconsin and deciding to forego book editing to join his apple growing business – something they still do.  But, since apple growing is “seasonal," she had time to pursue her writing during “off season.”

 

Her first novel, The Book of Ruth, won the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award, the Great Lakes College Association New Writers Award, and the Wisconsin Library Association Banta Book Award for Best First Novel.   She followed it with A Map of the World, firmly establishing her credentials.  Both books also became critically acclaimed films.   Much of her work (she now has 8 best-selling novels) reflects her personal experiences, settings and characters.  Her latest is 2025’s The Phoebe Variations.

 

Hamilton said she always thought that even though she was not a particularly good speller, writing was just something she was meant to do. 

 

“I just assumed that if you were a girl-child, you were supposed to grow up and write.”