Daily Iowan

Issue date: 10/31/07 Section: Arts

"Hampl is one of those who has nurtured the possibility of making literature out of one's own story, not as an autobiographical novel, but as a remembered reconstruction of her past," Hamilton said.

Hampl's success as a memoirist remains rooted in her diligent dedication to reading while a student at the UI, where she insists she read more than she wrote, and a persistent effort to keep on writing no matter her occupational title.

Upon graduation from the UI, Hampl segued into a slew of jobs - from working in nursing homes to temp work - to get by.

"It was a patchwork existence," she recalled. "But it didn't feel like it to me because my focus was on writing. It was a full-time job; I just wasn't getting paid."

Lauded as writing "the best memoirs of any writer in the English language" by best-selling author Pat Conroy, Hampl says she's still a working writer. "Writing is more of a sense of location," she said. "This is what I'm supposed to be doing."

Stationed in sharp memories, Hampl's poetry-infused prose reads with the skill of a word master and the kick of a storyteller, carrying on a literary quest for greater meaning.

E-mail DI reporter Vanessa Veiock at:

vanessa-veiock@uiowa.edu

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