It can truly be said that James Hannaham is a man of many talents; he admits to being a sort of renaissance man on his website, where he claims to be an “author, or writer, or something like that… perhaps novelist, but also journalist, teacher and occasional performer.”
Someone so faceted may come off as intimidating, but, attending a class with Hannaham, one realizes just how down to earth and human he actually is. He may tell the story of his tattoo – the children in school morphed his last name into the insult, “hammerhead”, which is why he now has the shark inked permanently on his arm.
Hannaham, a Yonkers native, remembers his childhood fondly, regardless of the taunts. His mother, who has since passed, was his greatest influence as a child and has continued to be through his adulthood.
Hannaham, though a published author and journalist, did not have a clear sense of what he wanted to do growing up. He majored in design in college, though the extents of his graphic work presently are funny musings about the choice of type and layout on the pages of books and magazines.
“It took me a long time to realize that what I’d always been interested in was language and words and meanings,” Hannaham said. “I was in a rock band, but I wrote a lot of odd lyrics which seemed more the point than the music.”
In 2008, Hannaham worked for Salon.com, the closest he’s come to a full-time job. He now is a freelance writer and writing professor at Eugene Lang College and Pratt Institute. His teaching is one part of his adulthood that he feels is very influenced by his mother and her parenting style. His writing, however, is more of himself. His novel “God Says No”, published in 2009, is about a closeted gay man and his struggle to accept his sexual orientation within the terms of his faith.
Hannaham is adamant, however, about separating the author from his work, which leads one to wonder how much can really be discovered about Hannaham merely through reading his work.
(need another quote here) *pending a meeting (unable to meet over break)
Living near Pratt Institute, Hannaham has strange, yet sensible, advice for living in New York City.
“Buy a piece of property in an up-and-coming neighborhood,” he says, “In a few years, your friends will marvel at how little you paid.”
*waiting on response from student for a student quote
No comments:
Post a Comment