Hannah Pittard

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Hannah Pittard
Hannah Pittard photo by Ayna Lorenzo.jpg
Pittard in 2025 (photo by Ayna Lorenzo)
Born Georgia, U.S.
OccupationNovelist, professor
NationalityAmerican
Notable worksThe Fates Will Find Their Way, Visible Empire, We Are Too Many, If You Love It, Let It Kill You

Hannah Pittard is an American novelist and author of short stories.

Contents

Early life and education

Pittard was raised in Georgia. [1] [2] She attended Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts, where she received praise for her creative writing. [1] She earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago in 2001 [1] and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Virginia in 2007. [2] She currently works at the University of Kentucky in Lexington KY. Her literary influences include Southern authors Flannery O'Connor, William Faulkner, and Harry Crews. [3]

Career

Pittard's first novel, The Fates Will Find Their Way, follows a group of boys from adolescence through middle age as they react to and speculate about a peer's mysterious disappearance. [4] It was favorably reviewed by The New York Times Book Review [5] and The Guardian. [4] Pittard said that she had aimed to capture a "universal ... feeling and experience" of nostalgia. [2]

Her second novel, Reunion, an editor's choice by the Chicago Tribune , [6] examines the lives and relationships of adult siblings in the immediate aftermath of their father's unexpected suicide. [3]

Listen to Me looks at personal and marital struggles of a wife and husband as they make a cross-country road trip. [7] [8]

Pittard's short stories have appeared in McSweeney's [9] and Narrative Magazine . [10] [11]

Pittard's 2018 novel, Visible Empire, is loosely based on true events. It is the fictionalized aftermath of the 1962 Air France Flight 007 accident, which exploded on the runway, killing 130 of the 132 people on board. More than one hundred members of the Atlanta Art Association died. [12]

In 2023, Pittard published the memoir We Are Too Many: A Memoir [Kind of], which chronicles the unraveling of her marriage after discovering her husband's affair with her best friend. The book was noted for its formal experimentation and emotional candor, and received critical attention from major outlets. [13]

In 2025, Pittard published the novel If You Love It, Let It Kill You, which explores themes of authorship, identity, and estrangement through a metafictional narrative. The book was reviewed in The New York Times Book Review, which praised its introspective voice and narrative ambition. [14] [15]

Personal life

Pittard was married to fellow writer Andrew Ewell from December 2012 to July 2016, when she found out that Ewell was cheating on her with her former friend Anna Shearer, the wife of mutual friend Ryan Fox. [16] Ewell later married Shearer. [17]

Works

References

  1. 1 2 3 Muhlenkamp, Katherine. "Finding Her Fate". Literature. University of Chicago Magazine. No. January/February 2012. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved April 9, 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 "An Interview with Hannah Pittard". Iris Magazine. University of Virginia. April 21, 2011. Archived from the original on October 17, 2015. Retrieved April 9, 2016.
  3. 1 2 Rebolini, Arianna (October 10, 2014). "Hannah Pittard Is the Writer You Won't Be Able to Stop Talking About". BuzzFeed . Archived from the original on October 10, 2014. Retrieved April 26, 2016.
  4. 1 2 O'Grady, Carrie (February 18, 2011). "The Fates Will Find Their Way by Hannah Pittard—Review". Books. The Guardian . Archived from the original on October 4, 2015. Retrieved April 12, 2016.
  5. Gilmore, Jennifer (January 28, 2011). "Boys to Men". Sunday Book Review. The New York Times . Archived from the original on April 3, 2011. Retrieved April 9, 2016.
  6. Taylor, Elizabeth (October 2, 2014). "Editor's Choice: 'Reunion' by Hannah Pittard". Books. Chicago Tribune . Archived from the original on March 9, 2015. Retrieved April 26, 2016.
  7. Anderson, Patrick (July 5, 2016). "Hannah Pittard's Chilling Road-Trip Novel: 'Listen to Me'". Books. The Washington Post . Archived from the original on September 16, 2016. Retrieved September 16, 2016.
  8. Wagner, Erica (August 5, 2016). "Marriage and Mileage: A Thriller Sends a Tense Couple on a Road Trip". Book Review. The New York Times . Archived from the original on September 16, 2016. Retrieved September 16, 2016.
  9. Pittard, Hannah (June 16, 2005). "There Is No Real Name for Where We Live". Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern . No. 16. ISBN   9781932416152.
  10. Pittard, Hannah. "Pretty Parts: A Story". Narrative Magazine . Retrieved April 9, 2016.(registration required)
  11. Pittard, Hannah. "An Experiment: A Novel Excerpt". Narrative Magazine . Retrieved April 9, 2016.(registration required)
  12. Pittard, Hannah (2018). Visible Empire. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN   978-0544748064.
  13. Kellogg, Carolyn (May 2, 2023). "Review: Hannah Pittard's memoir of betrayal is bold, risky and one-of-a-kind". The Washington Post.
  14. "Review: 'If You Love It, Let It Kill You' by Hannah Pittard". The New York Times. July 20, 2025.
  15. Jordan, Sarah (July 22, 2025). "'If You Love It, Let It Kill You' by Hannah Pittard explores the meaning of home". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 22, 2025.
  16. Heath, Chris (July 31, 2024). "Four Friends, Two Marriages, One Affair — and a Shelf of Books Dissecting It" . Vulture. Retrieved July 15, 2025.
  17. Alter, Alexandra (July 10, 2025). "Two Writers Fell in Love, Married, Then Divorced. Who Gets the Story?" . The New York Times. Retrieved July 15, 2025.
  18. Pittard, Hannah (2011). The Fates Will Find Their Way. ecco. ISBN   978-0-06-199605-4.
  19. Pittard, Hannah (2014). Reunion. Grand Central Publishing. ISBN   978-1-45-555361-7.
  20. Pittard, Hannah (2016). Listen to Me. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN   978-0-54-471444-1.
  21. Pittard, Hannah (2018). Visible Empire. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN   9780544748064.
  22. "We Are Too Many". Macmillan. Retrieved 2023-05-02.
  23. "If You Love It, Let It Kill You". Macmillan. Retrieved 2025-07-21.