Patricia Hampl

Writer Class of 1990
location icon Location
St. Paul, Minnesota
age iconAge
44 at time of award

About Patricia's Work

Patricia Hampl is a writer of poetry, memoirs, libretti, short fiction, and essays.

Hampl is the author of three memoirs, A Romantic Education (1981; new ed. with afterword, 1992), reflecting on her Midwestern childhood and her Czech heritage; Virgin Time (1992), a record of her Catholic upbringing and a search for the contemplative life; and I Could Tell You Stories: Sojourns in the Land of Memory (1999), in which she moves back and forth between a series of story-like recollections and essays to consider autobiographical writing -- her own and others.  Her other books include Woman Before an Aquarium (poetry, 1978), Resort and Other Poems (1983), Spillville (prose, 1987), and Burning Bright: An Anthology of Sacred Poetry (editor, 1995).  She also wrote In a Winter Garden (choral libretto, 1982) and Claire de Lune (opera libretto, 1985).

Biography

Her short stories, essays, travel writing, and reviews are published in numerous magazines and anthologies including the New Yorker, the Paris Review, the New York Times Book Review, Ploughshares, Granta, and The Best American Short Stories.  Hampl is the Regents’ Professor at the University of Minnesota, where she teaches creative writing.

Hampl received a B.A. (1968) from the University of Minnesota, and an M.F.A. (1970) from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

Last updated January 1, 2005

Published on August 1, 1990

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