Class Note 1998
Issue
March-April 2022
For this column, I attempted to contact ’98s who write. In particular, I asked how Dartmouth inspired their writing.
Kristen Hinman has been a journalist for the last 20 years. She credits English professor Terry Osborne as an influence. He was “electric” in the classroom and taught so many aspiring writers how to find their own voice. Through numerous conversations in office hours and across BlitzMail, he pushed Kristen to look beyond the Dartmouth bubble. Kristen had a wonderful visit with Professor Osborne a few years before his death in 2020, when she was working on an article for the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine. Currently Kristen lives with her husband and 4-year-old daughter in Washington, D.C. They recently moved from the Capitol Hill neighborhood to a woodsy spot along the Potomac River full of hardcore outdoor enthusiasts. Kristen has spent almost a decade overseeing all longform narrative for Washingtonian, the city magazine for the D.C. area. And oh, during these past few years there have been stories to tell! Kristen regularly sees Jessica Clark and last summer had a fun meetup when Deirdre (Driscoll) Siegert and Catherine Sterling came to town.
James Panero cited the daily journal that classics professors Edward Bradley and Roger Ulrich urged their students to keep during the foreign study program (FSP) in Italy. James credits the process of keeping the journal, not his actual writing. But his old notes have helped him in writing for The New Criterion, where he is an editor, and other venues. For example, James has been researching the Allied landing at Paestum, Italy, during World War II. Paestum was founded by the Greeks as Poseidonia, which James visited during the FSP. James may also write something about D.H. Lawrence’s essay “Etruscan Places” after studying the painted tombs of Tarquinia in Lazio, Italy. And for Spectator magazine, James recently compared New York City’s Tenth Street Baths to the baths he saw in Ostia Antica, an ancient Roman port. James follows Professor Ulrich on social media and is glad to see these trips continue and to revisit memories from nearly 30 years ago!
Mary Hollendoner finally returned from her epic voyage driving from the United States to Argentina. She, her husband, and 6-year-old daughter lived on the road for more than three years, experiencing heartwarming personal encounters, breathtaking wilderness campsites, and the occasional terrifying situation. This was the cover story from the September/October 2020 issue of this magazine. Mary recently wrote a book about it, Monkeys on the Road: One Family’s Vanlife Adventure South in Search of a Simpler Life, published in November 2021. For Mary, nothing stood out from college as inspiring her to write. Dartmouth did, however, spark a love for the outdoors, which led Mary to embark on adventure and to write a book about it.
Emily Hodgson Anderson is a professor of English at the University of Southern California. Her 2018 book, Shakespeare and the Legacy of Loss, discusses how 18th-century actors and artists immortalized the plays of Shakespeare. Emily wanted to write before she came to college, and at Dartmouth her professors inspired and guided her. Emily still holds onto assignments she wrote for Monika Otter, Jim Heffernan, Alex Halasz, and Tom Luxon, professors who are now colleagues. Recently Emily has been writing more personal essays, prominently featuring her New England upbringing.
Beyond these “professional” writers, we all write and were all influenced by our time at Dartmouth. If anyone else wants to add to this dialogue, I would love to hear from you.
—Gabe Galletti, 4000 Utah Ave., Nashville, TN 37209; galletti@gmail.com
Kristen Hinman has been a journalist for the last 20 years. She credits English professor Terry Osborne as an influence. He was “electric” in the classroom and taught so many aspiring writers how to find their own voice. Through numerous conversations in office hours and across BlitzMail, he pushed Kristen to look beyond the Dartmouth bubble. Kristen had a wonderful visit with Professor Osborne a few years before his death in 2020, when she was working on an article for the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine. Currently Kristen lives with her husband and 4-year-old daughter in Washington, D.C. They recently moved from the Capitol Hill neighborhood to a woodsy spot along the Potomac River full of hardcore outdoor enthusiasts. Kristen has spent almost a decade overseeing all longform narrative for Washingtonian, the city magazine for the D.C. area. And oh, during these past few years there have been stories to tell! Kristen regularly sees Jessica Clark and last summer had a fun meetup when Deirdre (Driscoll) Siegert and Catherine Sterling came to town.
James Panero cited the daily journal that classics professors Edward Bradley and Roger Ulrich urged their students to keep during the foreign study program (FSP) in Italy. James credits the process of keeping the journal, not his actual writing. But his old notes have helped him in writing for The New Criterion, where he is an editor, and other venues. For example, James has been researching the Allied landing at Paestum, Italy, during World War II. Paestum was founded by the Greeks as Poseidonia, which James visited during the FSP. James may also write something about D.H. Lawrence’s essay “Etruscan Places” after studying the painted tombs of Tarquinia in Lazio, Italy. And for Spectator magazine, James recently compared New York City’s Tenth Street Baths to the baths he saw in Ostia Antica, an ancient Roman port. James follows Professor Ulrich on social media and is glad to see these trips continue and to revisit memories from nearly 30 years ago!
Mary Hollendoner finally returned from her epic voyage driving from the United States to Argentina. She, her husband, and 6-year-old daughter lived on the road for more than three years, experiencing heartwarming personal encounters, breathtaking wilderness campsites, and the occasional terrifying situation. This was the cover story from the September/October 2020 issue of this magazine. Mary recently wrote a book about it, Monkeys on the Road: One Family’s Vanlife Adventure South in Search of a Simpler Life, published in November 2021. For Mary, nothing stood out from college as inspiring her to write. Dartmouth did, however, spark a love for the outdoors, which led Mary to embark on adventure and to write a book about it.
Emily Hodgson Anderson is a professor of English at the University of Southern California. Her 2018 book, Shakespeare and the Legacy of Loss, discusses how 18th-century actors and artists immortalized the plays of Shakespeare. Emily wanted to write before she came to college, and at Dartmouth her professors inspired and guided her. Emily still holds onto assignments she wrote for Monika Otter, Jim Heffernan, Alex Halasz, and Tom Luxon, professors who are now colleagues. Recently Emily has been writing more personal essays, prominently featuring her New England upbringing.
Beyond these “professional” writers, we all write and were all influenced by our time at Dartmouth. If anyone else wants to add to this dialogue, I would love to hear from you.
—Gabe Galletti, 4000 Utah Ave., Nashville, TN 37209; galletti@gmail.com