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The Missouri Review 28.1 (2005) 61



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Meet the Author

Jeffrey Hammond didn't consider becoming a creative writer until his mid-forties. A literary historian specializing in early American writing, Hammond began writing personal essays when he started chairing the English department at the St. Mary's College of Maryland. "I discovered that I had little time for research, so I began writing personal essays as a way to keep up my writing skills," Hammond says, "and also, probably, to stay sane in the midst of administrative duties."

With the encouragement of editors and friends, Hammond continued writing essays after stepping down as department chair. Hammond believes that there are plenty of interesting and significant things to write about in everyday experiences, and has never felt a need to write fiction. For him "the essay is a vehicle for pondering real life rather than escaping it."

Hammond has always tried to work on scholarly and creative projects simultaneously because he feels that they complement each other. "My work as a scholar and critic sometimes gives me an objective take on my creative work that I might not otherwise have," he says. "And the creative work reminds me that scholarly prose will also be read by real people."

At one point in his essay, Hammond claims that "a solitary temperament only gets more pronounced as a person ages." Having such a temperament, he says, can be beneficial because writing requires a certain tolerance for solitude. Hammond says he has more difficulty when it comes to the social aspects of being a writer, such as giving readings or leading workshops. The classroom, on the other hand, is a comfortable place. "As a teacher of literature, I'm always discussing other people's work, which is far less threatening than presenting or discussing my own."



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