John Patrick Hemingway (born August 19, 1960) is a Canadian-American author, whose memoir ''Strange Tribe: A Family Memoir'' examines the similarities and the complex relationship between his parent

Gloria Hemingway Gloria Hemingway (born Gregory Hancock Hemingway, November 12, 1931 – October 1, 2001) was an American physician and writer who was the third and youngest child of author Ernest Hemingway. Although she was born a male and lived most of her ...

and his grandfather,

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway ( ; July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Known for an economical, understated style that influenced later 20th-century writers, he has been romanticized fo ...

; in particular it addresses the issue of the gender identity of Gloria, who was a

trans woman A trans woman or transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity and may experience gender dysphoria (distress brought upon by the discrepancy between a person's gender identity and their ...

. Hemingway moved to

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

, Italy in 1983, where he pursued a writing and translating career. His articles have appeared in several Italian newspapers such as ''

l'Unità (; English: "the Unity") is an Italian newspaper, founded as the official newspaper of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in 1924. It was supportive of that party's successor parties, the Democratic Party of the Left, Democrats of the Left, a ...

'' and '' Libero'', and in American magazines and literary journals. He has published the novel ''Bacchanalia: A Pamplona Story'', inspired by his visits to the San Fermín festival, and has also prefaced the book ''Hemingway in Pamplona'', by Miguel Izu.

Personal life

As revealed in his memoir, ''Strange Tribe'', Hemingway had a difficult childhood. His parents suffered from mental illness, Gloria with

bipolar disorder Bipolar disorder (BD), previously known as manic depression, is a mental disorder characterized by periods of Depression (mood), depression and periods of abnormally elevated Mood (psychology), mood that each last from days to weeks, and in ...

and his mother, Alice Thomas, with

schizophrenia Schizophrenia () is a mental disorder characterized variously by hallucinations (typically, Auditory hallucination#Schizophrenia, hearing voices), delusions, thought disorder, disorganized thinking and behavior, and Reduced affect display, f ...

. Hemingway spent his early years being shuffled from one home to another and dealing with his

dysfunctional family In psychology, abnormality (also dysfunctional behavior, maladaptive behavior, or deviant behavior) is a behavioral characteristic assigned to those with conditions that are regarded as dysfunctional. Behavior is considered to be abnormal when i ...

. He eventually went to study history and Italian at

U.C.L.A. The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the Ca ...

and after graduating moved to Italy, as a way of distancing himself from his troubled family background. One of the unresolved questions for him was how Gloria, a

, could fit with the image that the public has of his grandfather as an icon of male masculinity. After leaving Italy and spending a year in Spain and three months in the Medoc in France, Hemingway now lives with his wife, Kristina and daughter in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, Quebec, Canada.

References

External links

Personal blog

WMFE-FM ''The Arts Connection'' radio program.

''The Diane Rehm Show'' radio interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hemingway, John American expatriate writers in Canada American expatriates in Italy Place of birth missing (living people) American expatriates in Spain American male writers 1960 births Living people Hemingway family Bull runners Canterbury School (Connecticut) alumni