Barry Hannah (1942–2010)
Author of Airships
About the Author
Barry Hannah was born in Meridian, Mississippi on April 23, 1942. He received a bachelor of arts degree from Mississippi College in Clinton in 1964 and a master of arts in creative writing from the University of Arkansas. He taught writing at the University of Mississippi for over 25 years. He also show more worked as writer in residence at the University of Iowa, the University of Montana-Missoula and Middlebury College in Vermont. During his lifetime he wrote eight novels and five short story collections including Airships (1978), Ray (1980), Never Die (1991), Bats Out of Hell (1993), High Lonesome (1996), and Yonder Stands Your Orphan (2001). His first novel, Geronimo Rex, was published in 1972 and received the William Faulkner prize for writing. In 2003, he was given the PEN/Malamud Award. He died of natural causes on March 1, 2010 at the age of 67. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Works by Barry Hannah
Associated Works
The Art of the Story: An International Anthology of Contemporary Short Stories (1999) — Contributor — 348 copies
Best of The Oxford American: Ten Years from the Southern Magazine of Good Writing {anthology} (2002) — Contributor — 43 copies
A Very Southern Christmas: Holiday Stories from the South’s Best Writers (2003) — Preface — 34 copies
Rediscoveries II: Important Writers Select Their Favorite Works of Neglected Fiction (1988) — Contributor — 30 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Hannah, Howard Barry
- Birthdate
- 1942-04-23
- Date of death
- 2010-03-01
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Meridian, Mississippi, USA
- Place of death
- Oxford, Mississippi, USA
- Places of residence
- Clinton, Mississippi, USA
Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA
Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA
Oxford, Mississippi, USA (death)
Meridian, Mississippi, USA (birth) - Education
- University of Arkansas
Mississippi College - Occupations
- novelist
short-story writer - Organizations
- Fellowship of Southern Writers
- Awards and honors
- PEN/Malamud Award (2003)
Robert Penn Warren Award for Fiction (1999)
American Academy of Arts and Letters Academy Award (Literature, 1979)
Members
Reviews
Hey Jack! (Contemporary American Fiction) by Barry Hannah
I grew up in the South when it was still the South, so this book resonated with me. I don't think it would have a wide a appeal though. I like Hannah's writing. It's unique, which is one of its main selling points for me. Kind of reminds me of a toned-down Harry Crews.
i know, i know. i keep on changing my rating of this one. added another star because i've decided "Knowing He Was Not My Kind Yet I Followed" is in my top 10 favorite short stories ever list. it kills. like a bayonet to the gut. that said, still found the white-maleness of the collection as a whole a bit obnoxious, but that's me.
The 20 stories here, averaging 10 pages, are already running together in my memory as a kind of jambalaya of whackjob Southern losers, racists, and two-dimensional women. Sounds awful, especially if like me you're turned off by (almost) all things Southern, but when Hannah's prose takes wing it pulls off mind-boggling manoeuvres. Testimony of Pilot, one of three longer pieces, is a glorious freewheeling picaresque that slots comfortably into my top 3 short stories of the year. Coming Close to Donna and Eating Wife and Friends are vicious little chips of obsidian. But the three Civil War stories did next to nothing for me, and others like Quo Vadis, Smut and the tiring Return to Return just ain't as funny or as clever as they think they are. Overall another collection with very high highs and notable lows, which is better than having neither of those.… (more)
I didn't really dislike this book. It just didn't make much of an impact on me. It was like a dream in that the information goes in, but it doesn't stick. If you asked me what it was about, I probably couldn't tell you. I can tell you some of the things that happened, plot-wise. It was funny. The problem is that things would happen and then they didn't happen. I kept wincing at the racial epithets. It may be realistic, but I just don't want to read those words.
I read 'Airships' and liked it. I will try another Barry Hannah book.… (more)
I read 'Airships' and liked it. I will try another Barry Hannah book.… (more)
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Statistics
- Works
- 25
- Also by
- 23
- Members
- 2,060
- Popularity
- #12,488
- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
- 50
- ISBNs
- 61
- Languages
- 5
- Favorited
- 10