pete hamill (!)

Pete Hamill, the respected writer, reporter and lifelong New Yorker, stopped by our journalism class this week to give us all a bit of insight into his world.

Grey-bearded and dressed in a casual but neat blazer and navy t-shirt, he settled into a chair at the front of the room. In his deep, calm, bedtime-story voice, he started talking about life in New York.

Hamill takes walks every day; they are his way of keeping a pulse on his city. He walks alone, or with his dog, and lets his mind explore. And then he writes. He writes to understand, to remember, and to share. He wrote his book "Downtown" for his grandson, who currently lives in Westchester, New York. “I wanted him to understand why this weird old guy with a beard had such passion for this strange city,” he said.

And he doesn’t write just for his grandson, but for children in general. “I want them to feel excitement – passion for this place we’re living in,” he said. “Kids will learn and they will go home and teach their parents.”

Hamill is currently working on a present-day novel.