User:Hthamannaag/Hilary Thayer Hamann

Hilary Thayer Hamann born November 7, is an American author best known for her novel "Anthropology of an American Girl."(1)

Hamann was born and raised in New York. She attended New York University, where she received a B.F.A. in Film & Television Production and Dramatic Writing from Tisch School of the Arts, an M.A. in Cinema Studies from the Graduate School of Arts and Science, and a Certificate in Anthropological Filmmaking from NYU’s Center for Media, Culture, and History. She is a founding member of the Tisch East Alumni Council.(2)

She is the author of a work of literary fiction, Anthropology of an American Girl (2003), a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story about a young woman growing up in Reagan era America.(3) The novel was first published by Vernacular Press, an independent publishing company of which Ms. Hamann was founder and co-owner.(4) Anthropology was purchased for publication by Spiegel & Grau, a division of Random House, and is scheduled for release in May 2010.(5) It has been newly edited by Cindy Spiegel, editor and publisher of Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner.(6) The novel received strong reviews upon initial publication.(7) It won a “Notable Fiction Award” from Writers Notes (2004), and Foreword Magazine named it a Book of the Year “Fiction Finalist” (2003). Anthropology was cited for its “gorgeous language and brilliant observation” by Ms. Magazine, and it was called a “magnificently intense love story” by Romantic Times Book Club, which awarded the book “Top Pick” status, plus four-and-a-half stars, the magazine’s highest rating.

Ms. Hamann has spoken about writing and the importance of originality in creative expression at colleges in the United States including Boston University, George Mason University, Georgetown, Harvard, Northwestern, University of California-Berkeley, and Barnard College, where she kicked off the Spring 2004 Books Etc. reading series.