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Peter Hardin
Peter Hardin was born in New York City in 1951. He was raised in the suburbs until age fifteen, when his parents, having run out of ideas to keep him out of trouble, sent him to bo...view morePeter Hardin was born in New York City in 1951. He was raised in the suburbs until age fifteen, when his parents, having run out of ideas to keep him out of trouble, sent him to boarding school in Arizona, an experience that changed his life and started a long-term love affair with the state.
His best childhood days were spent in Woodstock, NY, with his bohemian grandparents. Hardin’s parents were left of center politically but socially conservative. His father wanted him to fit in. First he couldn’t, then he wouldn’t. Truancy and delinquency worked out well in the end in that they landed him in a small, progressive, coeducational boarding school in Sedona, Arizona, in the red rock country so familiar to fans of movie westerns.
The multicultural student body at boarding school opened Hardin’s eyes to worlds outside of the neurotic, stifling suburbs. After graduation in 1969 he spent five years traveling throughout the United States on a BMW motorcycle, stopping wherever he was when he ran out of money, to work and replenish.
Hardin enrolled at Sarah Lawrence College in the fall of 1974. His primary areas of study were theater and music. While attending college he fronted a rock and roll band that played music he wrote. His first stage role was “Bobby” in Stephen Sondheim’s musical “Company.” The part had him on stage for the entire show singing, dancing, and attempting to act. He learned quickly that show time was wonderful but the process leading up to performance was less of a turn-on.
The band was fun but it was tough to get work performing all original music, and tougher yet keeping musicians committed to the project since they were not being paid. Hardin turned to writing, a craft he could happily practice on his own. He studied with Joe Papaleo, chair of the writing department, which at the time also included Grace Paley and Ed Doctorow. Long fiction was the attraction and he has practiced it ever since.
After college Hardin moved to Los Angeles, where he sold three movie scripts into development at Paramount. He also sold his first novel to a large British publisher, Paddington Press. Unfortunately they went bankrupt before the book reached stores. In order to pay the bills he began working as a general contractor doing residential building and renovation and some light commercial work. A construction career dovetailed nicely with a writing habit in that often when on a job site Hardin’s mind was free to contemplate the current fiction project. Construction also paid well enough to allow him to schedule blocks of free writing time between building commitments.
Hardin moved to southern Arizona in fall 1982. He continued his contracting career for another twenty years and continues writing long fiction to this day. Married since 1984, he lives in Tucson with his easy-going wife and demanding cat. He is a member of The Writers’ Guild of America.view less