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Hannah Pittard Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Interview  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Hannah Pittard
Photo: Joe Wigdahl

Hannah Pittard

Hannah Pittard Biography

Hannah Pittard is the author of four novels and a forthcoming memoir. Her books have been recommended by the New York Times; Chicago Tribune; O, The Oprah Magazine; Time; The Guardian; The Washington Post; Belletrist; Powell's Indie Subscription Club; The Indie Next List; and the Signed First Edition Club at Harvard Bookstore. She is a winner of the Amanda Davis Highwire Fiction Award, a Macdowell Colony fellow, and a graduate of Deerfield Academy, the University of Chicago, and the University of Virginia. She also spent some time at St. John's College in Annapolis. She is a professor of English at the University of Kentucky and lives in Lexington with her boyfriend and step-daughter.

Hannah Pittard's website

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Interview

Hannah Pittard discusses Visible Empire, an epic novel—based on true events—set in Atlanta in 1962.

You were born in Atlanta?

I was born and somewhat raised in Atlanta. I have a complicated relationship with the town. It's where I grew up. It's where I became an observer, a listener, an introspective and often introverted little human, but it's also where I was the focal point of a decade-long custody battle. It's difficult for me to divorce my experiences of that time—all those therapists and lawyers and judges—from the city itself. I went away to school when I was 13, and this also has affected my relationship with the place. When I go back, there are no high school friends waiting to catch up with me. Most of my favorite places to hang out are long gone.

Your mother, to whom you dedicate the novel, is the person who first told you the story of the disaster at Orly?

My mother was deeply impacted by the event. She didn't know anyone who'd died—though she ultimately came to know several of the children whose parents were lost—but after that crash, she began making audio recordings on tiny handheld tape recorders before traveling anywhere by plane. She would make a tape, box it up, heavily seal it (masking tape, etc.—they're insane, I've seen them, they still exist) and then leave a note on the ...

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Books by this Author

Books by Hannah Pittard at BookBrowse
We Are Too Many jacket Visible Empire jacket The Fates Will Find Their Way jacket
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Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Hannah Pittard but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • Tom Rachman

    Tom Rachman

    Tom Rachman was born in 1974 in London but grew up in Vancouver. He studied cinema at the University of Toronto and completed a Master's degree in journalism at Columbia University in New York. From 1998, he worked as an ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    The Fates Will Find Their Way

    Try:
    The Imperfectionists
    by Tom Rachman

  • Marilynne Robinson

    Marilynne Robinson

    Marilynne Robinson is the author of Gilead, winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award; Home (2008), winner of the Orange Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; Lila (2014), ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    The Fates Will Find Their Way

    Try:
    Gilead
    by Marilynne Robinson

We recommend 3 similar authors

View all 3 Read-Alikes

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Top Picks

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