About J.C. Hallman
J.C. Hallman grew up in Southern California and studied creative writing at the University of Pittsburgh, the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins. After graduate school, Hallman worked for a time in the casino industry in New Jersey, dealing blackjack, craps, and high action baccarat.
Hallman’s nonfiction combines memoir, history, journalism, and travelogue, and has been compared to Tom Wolfe and Bruce Chatwin. His first book, The Chess Artist, tells the story of Hallman’s friendship with chess player Glenn Umstead, whom he first encountered in Atlantic City. Together the two traveled to Russia and experienced a variety of adventures that reveal the quirkiness of the chess subculture. His second book, The Devil is a Gentleman, is about Hallman’s intellectual apprenticeship with philosopher William James. Through visits to a number of contemporary offbeat religious movements, during which he experiences a range of rites and ceremonies, Hallman explores the ways in which James’s thinking continues to inform America’s religious identity.
A collection of Hallman's short stories, The Hospital for Bad Poets, will be published by Milkweed Editions in 2009. A third book of nonfiction, In Eutopia, is forthcoming from St. Martin's Press.
Hallman has taught at a number of colleges and universities. He currently lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.
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"Mind Over Matter" on Salon.com
