Janet Hamill

Janet Hamill
Hamill photographed byNeil Winokurin 2011
Born	(1945-07-29)July 29, 1945 Christ Hospital,Jersey City, New Jersey,U.S.
Occupation	Poet,spoken word artist
Education	New England College(MFA
Notable awards	One Voice Work Grant Ramapo-Catskill Library Program of the Year
Website
www.janethamill

Janet Hamill(born July 29, 1945, inJersey City, New Jersey) is an American poet andspoken word artist.Her poem "K-E-R-O-U-A-C" was nominated for aPushcart Prize,and her fifth collection, titledBody of Water,was nominated for theWilliam Carlos Williams Awardby thePoetry Society of America.

Her first collection of short fiction, titledTales from the Eternal Cafe(Three Rooms Press, 2014), was named one of the "Best Books of 2014" byPublishers Weekly.

Early life and education

Hamill was born on July 29, 1945, inChrist HospitalinJersey City, New Jersey.She spent her first five years inWeehawken, New Jersey,then moved toNew Milford, New Jersey,in 1950.

In 1963, she entered Glassboro State College, nowRowan University,inGlassboro, New Jersey,where she earned aBAin English in 1967. At Glassboro, Hamill met lifelong friend and collaborator, musician and poetPatti Smith.Smith and Hamill were both considered campus outcasts and beatniks, but bonded over art and rock and roll on the staff ofThe Avant,the campus literary magazine, and backstage at the campus theatre, where they were both active.

Career

After graduation, Hamill andPatti Smithmoved fromSouth JerseytoNew York City,where they found their first apartments near thePratt InstituteinBrooklyn.Smith moved in with photographerRobert Mapplethorpe,and Hamill lived a few blocks away on Clinton Ave.In 1968, Hamill moved to theLower East Side,where she briefly shared an apartment with Smith. For the next 25 years,Lower Manhattanwas Hamill's home, and she worked in bookstores and traveled across the U.S. and to Mexico. She took a freighter across the Atlantic and traveled through much ofNorth Africaand Europe, including toMorocco,Egypt,Sudan,Ethiopia,Kenya,andTanzania.

Upon her return in 1975, Hamill publishedTroublante,her first book, and became an active member of the downtown literary community. She read at venues, including thePoetry ProjectatSt. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery,and wrote, directed, and acted inBob Holman’s Poet's Theatre and performed with new wave musicianAdele Berteiat theMudd Club.

A strong proponent of the spoken word, Hamill has read widely in New York City, across the country and in Europe at museums, venues and festivals such as St. Marks Church, The People's Poetry Gathering, the Walt Whitman Cultural Center, the WORD Festival, theBowery Poetry Club,the Knitting Factory,CBGB’s Gallery, theNuyorican Café,Central Park Summer Stage,Lowell Celebrates Kerouac, theAndy Warhol Museum,The Rubin Museum,Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Seattle's Bumbershoot Festival, the Liss Ard Festival inCounty Cork,Ireland, Patti Smith's Meltdown Festival in London, the Latitude Festival in Southwold, England, and Liverpool's Heartbeats series.

She has released two CDs of spoken word and music in collaboration with the band Lost Ceilings.Flying Nowhere(Yes No Maybe Records, 2000) was produced by Lenny Kaye and executive-produced by Bob Holman; the CD featured cameo performances by Lenny Kaye and Patti Smith.Genie of the Alphabet(Not Records 2005), produced by Janet Hamill and Bob Torsello, featured cameos byLenny Kaye,Patti Smith, Bob Holman and beat legendDavid Amram.

In 2018, contemporary Irish composerIan Wilsonadapted Janet's poem "A Thousand Years" to music. The piece, titled "How Goes the Night," after a line from "A Thousand Years," was commissioned by theGlass Farm Ensemble.It had its New York debut at Symphony space on November 17, 2019.

Hamill resides in theHudson ValleyinNew York state,where she is s a professional tutor for the English Department atSUNY Orangeand a member the advisory board of the Seligmann Center inSugar Loaf, New York,an organization located on the estate of surrealist painterKurt Seligmann.

Hamill is the founder and director of MEGAPHONE, the center's literary program. She taught creative writing workshops at The Poetry Project forNaropa University,New England College,and Seligmann Center. She also has presented workshops in Liverpool and London.

Works

Poetry

• Troublante,Oliphant Press (1975)
• The Temple,Telephone Books (1980)
• Nostalgia of the Infinite,Ocean View Books (1992)
• Lost Ceilings,Telephone Books, (1999)
• Body of Water,Bowery Books (2008)
• Knock,Spuyten Duyvil (2016)
• Real Fire,Alexandria Quarterly Press (2017)
• A Map of the Heavens: Selected Poems 1975-2017Spuyten Duyvil (2020)

Fiction

• Tales from the Eternal Cafe,Three Rooms Press, (2014)

CDs

• Flying Nowhere(NOT Records), 2000
• Genie of the Alphabet(NOT Records), 2005

Grants and awards

• One Voice Work Grant, 2001–2011
• Ramapo-Catskill Library Program of the Year, 1999
• Joel Oppenheimer Scholarship, New England College

External links

• Official website