Although he is the first to acknowledge his debts to the writers who have gone before him, Hannah's catalogue of influences is too eclectic to suggest a scope or focus for the common reader. He acknowledges the influence of Ernest Hemingway, Faulkner, James Joyce, Henry Miller, and Joseph Conrad and cites the Southern Gothic tradition as integral to his development as a writer. He is equally quick to mention his most influential editor, Gordon Lish (first at
Esquire, later at Knopf); writer and friend Thomas McGuane; and an acquaintance, poet Richard Brautigan. Additionally, many other individuals, including Walker Percy, John Berryman, the Beat Generation writers Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, and Jimi Hendrix, deserve mention as influences.
Hannah insists, in interview after interview, that writing should always be fresh and never pedestrian and that there must be a rhythm and a love for the words themselves. This love of language recalls Ezra Pound's injunctions to "make it new" and to write always in mind of music. Indeed, Hannah's strength, acknowledged even by those who bemoan his overall narrative strategies, lies in his ability to locate precisely the right word or phrase.
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