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Biography of Jere Hoar
by Luke Campbell
Journalist, teacher, novelist, and short story writer Jere Hoar was born October 23, 1929, in Dyerburg, Tennessee, but he has lived in many places and is currently a resident of Oxford, Mississippi. The depression caused his family many hardships, and his father supported the family, which included Hoar, his mother and a brother Johnny, by selling books, advertising, and serving as a lieutenant in the Civilian Conservation Core. His father served during World War II and rose to the rank of colonel and received the Purple Heart. He then purchased the Troy Messenger, a daily newspaper in Troy, Alabama, so Jere Hoar finished high school at Troy High and helped his father with the newspaper. Hoar worked in the print shop, but by the time he was sixteen, he was the police reporter. At age seventeen, he became the editorial writer for the newspaper. In an interview with SHS student, Kim Lehman, Hoar says that it was at this point that he decided to become a journalist (Lehman).
Hoar served in the Air Force during the Korean War, earned undergraduate and graduate degrees from Auburn University, the University of Mississippi, and the University of Iowa. For thirty years, he taught journalism at the University of Mississippi and is now professor emeritus. While teaching at the University of Mississippi, Hoar won the Outstanding Teacher Award in 1974. He published more than forty scholarly articles, six monographs, three television scripts, and a chapter in a textbook. Hoar also "read law" in the Mississippi Perceptorship Program. Later, he passed the bar exam and was admitted to the Mississippi Bar.
After retiring from teaching journalism, Hoar began writing short stories. Reviews of his work have been published in the New York Times, Booklist, and Bookman News. Hoar published a collection of eleven short stories entitled Body Parts in 1997. His first published novel, The Hit retains the short story style. It was published in 2003.
Hoar has won many honors for both his teaching and his writing. In teaching, he won the Outstanding Teacher Award and was invited as a visiting professor at other universities, including King's College in London, England. For his writing, Hoar's awards include Pirate's Alley, William Faulkner Prize, The Deep South Writers Conference Competition, and the Kansas Arts
Council/KQ award. Currently, he is working on a "coming-of-age" novel that has a working title, Preacher Boy, as well as a a novel inspired by the grandmother he never knew; both will be set in the South in the 20th Century.
E-Mail Interview with Jere Hoar
by Kimberly Lehman (SHS)
May 3, 2000
1. Where did you grow up?
I was born in Dyersburg, TN., but moved away (with the help of my parents) when I was two. I lived many places--Barnwell, S.C., Provo, Utah, and Minersville, CA, for example, in one year. I attended thirteen schools
before being graduated from high school, and lived in a far greater number of towns --most of them in the South. Because the Depression had crippled the economy, my father activated his commission when he could, and served as a lieutenant in the Civilian Conservation Corps. At other times before 1941 he sold yearbooks, sold advertising, and managed a furniture store. He was a lieutenant in the Army at Maxwell Field in Montgomery, AL, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. He volunteered that day for overseas duty, and soon shipped out to the Pacific Theatre, where he rose to the rank of Colonel and was awarded the Legion of Merit and the Purple Heart. My brother, mother and I remained in Montgomery. During WW II, I began 10th grade in Sidney Lanier High School.
2. Where did you attend high school? What kind of student were you?
I spent half a year in Sidney Lanier, and the remainder of my high school years at Troy High in Alabama, where my father had bought the Troy Messenger, a daily newspaper. I was an average student--a bit lost--in Sidney Lanier, but an excellent student in Troy High.
3. What made you become interested in journalism?
Dad was in the business and I was "forced labor." Once I moved beyond print shop tasks and was entrusted with the job of police reporter at 16, and became the (secret) editorial writer for his newspaper at age 17, I was
hooked.
4. What made you decide to be a professor?
I've always liked to learn, and teaching a subject is a way to learn it well and to organize your knowledge. Frankly, I thought I could do a better job of teaching than many of my own college professors had done! And
teaching is--well, it's a service. In some small way a teacher may contribute to others' lives and careers. I would not like to look back, having lived my life totally for myself.
5. Are you currently working as an attorney?
No.
6. What influenced you to write Body Parts?
I had short term goals and long term. The short term goals were to free myself from the tyranny of facts, and learn a new way of writing. Fiction writing can be a search for human truth based on the writer's vision. Fiction should either entertain or become part of our lives, or both. To learn, I chose to write different types of short stories with different points of view. The next step was to publish some of the best in a collection. Fortunately, the collection became a New York Times book of the year, and a book of the year selection of the American Library Association.
7. Were the characters in Body Parts based on anyone in real life?
I'm not sure what other writers do, but in my case there are only three fictional characters I can think of that are based solely on single individuals. These are Clarke, Cookie, and Fergus in the BODY PARTS story, "A Brave, Damn-Near Perfect Thing."
8. Have you written any other books?
No other fiction books. I became a professional fiction writer in retirement. Before that, most of what I wrote was nonfiction. I've published more than 40 articles and studies in magazines and journals ranging from WESTERN HORSEMAN to THE JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY; six monographs; 29 short stories in literary journals and commercial magazines; a chapter in a textbook; and many book reviews in journals and newspapers. I've also sold three scripts to public television.
9. Have you received any other awards that I do not have listed?
The Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award at Ole Miss
Pirate's Alley William Faulkner Prize (co-winner)
Kansas Arts Council/KQ Award for short fiction
Winner, novel category, Deep South Writers Competition
Finalist, Hemingway First Novel Contest
The Silver Em for Contributions to Journalism
Fulbright grant through Group Projects Abroad
Finalist, Flannery O'Connor Competition
Other awards in film arts, television script
writing, and poetry
10. Are you planning on writing another book? If so, do you have a title for it yet?
Three novels are partially written. One is a thriller (Note: The Hit is now published), one is a coming-of-age novel, and one is a novel inspired by biographical anecdotes and two photographs of a grandmother I never knew. The coming-of-age novel has the working title, PREACHER BOY. The imagined life story about my grandmother will begin with a short story in BODY PARTS titled "My Father's Voice, Lifting." It will follow the heroine from girlhood to old womanhood.
11. Do you have any favorite hobbies?
Yes, I do! I read novels, story collections and nonfiction books, hunt quail and raise bird dogs, ride Tennessee Walking Horses, have a flock of St. Croix sheep, train my herding dog and compete with her, and study subjects that interest me. Right now, that subject is genetics.
12. Do you have any family you would like to mention?
My daughter, Lu Ann, is the supervisor of group homes for the retarded in North Mississippi. My elder son, Tom, is a director of public relations. Ben, a former dentist, is becoming a missionary. All have received undergraduate and graduate degrees from Ole Miss.
13. Is there any other information you would like to share that I have not already asked?
I'd like young people to know that a life in the arts is not one that most writers, musicians, painters, and so-on are born to! The major difference between a published writer and a non published one is that the former is persistent and a learner. As a teacher with 36 years of experience, I promise you that there are more talents and abilities in you and your classmates than you will ever develop fully. Some are great talents, and some are lesser, but we are all potentially inventive and multi-talented individuals. How we our spend time in our preparatory years is important. Every choice matters. My brother, Johnny, and I were fortunate as boys. Our mother, who had little experience in the world, convinced us that we could achieve whatever we wanted if we wanted it enough, would prepare ourselves, and would work hard and persistently. We were small and ignorant, had no experience in the world, and believed her. That has served us well.
*One more point: it helps to set both short term and long term goals, so that you are rewarded and encouraged at each stage in your journey.
Photo's, bio, etc:
http://jerehoar.com/bio.html
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The H600 Project Genealogy DB
1929 - 