Retired SEMO professor Robert Hamblin writes novel centered on gay rights

After writing 33 books on subjects as varied as William Faulkner, coach Ron Shumate at Southeast Missouri State University, and baseball, Bob Hamblin has authored a novel, �Leaving Here,� about a depressed lawyer drawn into the fight for gay rights in small-town Missouri in the early 1990s.

Robert Hamlin, professor emeritus of English at Southeast Missouri State University, sits for a portrait Monday at a desk in his home in front of a typewriter he shares with his wife, Kaye, and used to use for writing.TYLER GRAEF

�Most of us have relatives or friends who are gay,� Hamblin said, �and I am very much aware how they�re mistreated.�

While Hamblin said the book�s point is a bit heavy-handed, �That�s intentional. I thought this was something I wanted to say, and I think it needs to be said.�

Hamblin said there has been plenty to be disappointed about in the fight for gay rights, in recent years especially, but at the time he was writing the book, he was more optimistic about progress.

The book�s plot revolves around a lawyer fighting depression who meets and befriends a group of lesbians, Hamblin said, then finds purpose and redemption in fighting for their rights.

Robert Hamblin leafs through a copy of his recently-published novel, "Leaving Here," Monday in his home in Cape Girardeau.TYLER GRAEF

The title refers to the lawyer character, initially, Hamblin said, but in an interesting coincidence, he discovered after it was written the title is shared by a rock song covered by several artists, including The Who, about a group of women leaving home as a protest against mistreatment.

And, he said, the title is a testament to positive changes as people in general begin to be more tolerant.

�Leaving Here� is set in 1994, in a fictionalized town in the foothills of the Missouri Ozarks.

�Small towns are pretty universal,� Hamblin said, adding he drew upon people, places and events readers might know about.

Hamblin retired in 2013 after 50 years teaching literature at Southeast, and, among other accomplishments, brought the Louis Brodsky collection of famed novelist William Faulkner�s writings, now curated by the Center for Faulkner Studies at Southeast.

�Faulkner is really the only major figure I�ve written about,� Hamblin said.

Most of his other work has been focused on small-town life, and the figures at the edges � the stories of the �little people� who aren�t always heard, he said.

He has another book published recently, a memoir about his parents, �Bless You, My Father.�

�My dad had a fourth-grade education, was a truck driver, never amounted to much in the world�s eyes, but to me, he was a giant, a hero,� Hamblin said.

So, over the years, Hamblin wrote about him, and about other people, places and subjects whose stories he wanted to help tell.

Hamblin said he was fortunate to work at Southeast, which emphasizes teaching over publications.

�It�s not a �publish-or-perish� institution,� Hamblin said, which left him free to pursue subjects he found interesting and stories he was passionate about.

And, he said, some of his earlier books were requested by a publisher � he doesn�t have a lot of experience with the traditional publishing model for a novel.

So he published �Leaving Here� through CreateSpace on Amazon.com.

�If I�d gone the conventional novel-publishing route, I�d need an agent first,� Hamblin said, and he doesn�t have one. �Then the agent would have to sell it to a publisher, and it would be six months to a year before the book was actually published.�

This way, he said, he uploaded the electronic document to the website, and 10 days later, was holding the physical book in his hands.

�I�m too old to be interested in a long-term project,� he said, laughing.

This novel was a new venture for him, Hamblin said, �and it really was fun. There�s a lot to be said for doing something just to see if you can. I�d never really tried. I took the leap.�

Hamblin said the academic books he�s written, collections of poetry and short stories, profiles of figures he found interesting, were never going to be best-sellers.

�The satisfaction was in knowing I could do it,� he said.

mniederkorn@semissourian.com

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