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Pomona College Magazine is published three times a year by Pomona College
550 N. College Ave, Claremont, CA 91711
Online Editor: Mark Kendall
For editorial matters:
Editor: Mark Wood
Phone: (909) 621-8158
Fax: (909) 621-8203
PCM Editorial Guidelines
Contact Alumni Records for changes of address, class notes, or notice
of births or deaths.
Phone: (909) 621-8635
Fax: (909) 621-8535
Email: alumni@pomona.edu
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Woman of Mystery
Joan Hansen '54 has lots of ways of
hunting down big-name suspense writers and convincing them to speak at
her "Men of Mystery" events
By Valerie Takahama
When Joan Hansen ’54 invited suspense writer James Patterson to appear
at the Men of Mystery authors event a few years ago, he politely brushed
her off. Hansen, not one
to give up, tried again the next year, and happened to get Patterson’s
mother-in-
law on the phone.
“She said, ‘Well, he’s right in your neighborhood, he’s in Hollywood,’
and
gave me the phone number,” Hansen said. “I got him at his hotel, and he
said, ‘OK, all right, I’ll do it.’’’
Alfred Hitchcock, Angela Lansbury, Vincent Price and Stephen Bochco are
among the recipients of the Mystery Writers of America’s Raven Award for
outstanding achievement in the mystery field outside of writing.
Hansen’s
love of reading—and her dogged pursuit of those who make it possible—
helped the retired English teacher win one, too.
In 2000, she founded Men of Mystery, a nonprofit event that brings
together 50 male mystery writers and hundreds of readers for a luncheon
and
conversation each year in Orange County.
“Really, I’d say Joan is the event,” says Martin Cruz Smith, author of
Gorky Park and other bestsellers featuring the Russian homicide
detective
Arkady Renko.
“Who would have thought you could have this kind of an event? What
leads someone to believe that it’s possible to bring that many authors
together
from all over?”
 The event features some of the biggest names in the mystery,
detective and suspense field, including Michael Connelly, Dean
Koontz and Joseph Wambaugh. And Hansen does it on a nonpaying
basis with an all-volunteer staff of about 70 members.
“She’s just persuasive and persistent,” Smith says. “Once you
meet her, she’s absolutely charming.”
He should know. Smith only agreed to speak at the event
after Hansen engaged in a game of cat and mouse. The first
time she called him, he declined the invitation because he said it
fell on his wife’s birthday. The next year, he said he couldn’t
make it because it was on his birthday.
She kept at it. Sure enough, last year, the elusive author
headlined the festival, only one of two appearances he made
during the year.
Suspense writer Thomas Perry headlined the event in 2001
and has returned several times to be among the authors who sit
at tables and chat with fans. And, like everyone else, he pays his
own way.
“It’s charisma. She’s so nice you want to do what she says,”
Perry says.
Books were such a pleasure when Hansen was growing up in
Santa Rosa, Calif., that if she misbehaved, her mother punished
her by taping newspaper over her bookcase.
The public library was her haven. A constant visitor, she was
hired as a page at 14 and allowed to fill in during the summer
for the children’s librarian. Even then, she was “a ham at heart,”
and loved to entertain children during story hour.
She majored in English at Pomona, where her love of literature
was stoked in favorite Shakespeare and classics classes. She
credits Professor Frederick Bracher with directing her toward a
special teacher-training program at Vanderbilt University and
Peabody Teacher’s College in Nashville, Tenn.
“I thought of writing, and I thought of acting, but I decided
to make the classroom my stage,” she says.
When she graduated, she got a job with the Long Beach
school district. At the new teachers’ orientation, she met the
man who would become her husband, Rolland Hansen, an
American history teacher.
In the mid-70s, she helped organize the Arts in the Parks
program in Westminster, where she lives, and pushed to include
writers along with painters and musicians. Even though she
passed out flyers, the event flopped. The four writers she invited
faced a near-empty auditorium in the civic center.
“It was so depressing,” she says. “I sent my son and my husband
home, and told them, ‘Bring the neighbors!’”
“One of the authors told me, ‘Joan, you have to put us
where the readers are, like in a library.’ And I thought, ‘Or in a
school.’”
From that failure sprang the successful Long Beach children’s
authors festival, which brought writers into classrooms for more
than 25 years and spawned similar events in other cities.
Festivals in Westminster, Newport Beach, Huntington Beach,
Costa Mesa and Alhambra continue today.
Several children’s-book authors she supported early in their
careers have never forgotten her. One of them opened his home
in Los Angeles to her when she was diagnosed with cancer in
2000 and had to travel to Hollywood for radiation treatment.
“I call her my fairy godmother. She’s really willing to share
of herself. I think it’s infectious,” says Barney Saltzberg, author
of Crazy Hair Day and Soccer Mom from Outer Space.
In the mid-’90s, Hansen started the Festival of Women
Authors. Modeled on a Long Beach event called Literary
Women, it has featured Alice Sebold, Janet Fitch, Harriet Doerr,
Elizabeth George and other writers. Attendance is limited to
500, and it’s a sell-out every year, attracting a largely female
audience.
One day, she was brainstorming with a friend about organizing
an event that would draw more male readers. “I jokingly
said the only way you’re going to bring men in is to have sports
writers and pornographers,” says Jim Day, who has helped her
organize literary events.
“Joan thought maybe mystery writers.”
She borrowed the Men of Mystery name from a fund-raising
calendar featuring hunky male mystery writers, and the event
took off from there. Within a few years, it gained a national
reputation.
And in 2005, she traveled to New York to collect the
Raven.
True to form, she used the trip to recruit big-name writers
for her event. On the airport bus, she started talking with the
man sitting beside her, and before long the conversation turned
to reading.
“I said something about mysteries, and he said, ‘Michael
Connelly is one of my absolute favorites.’ I said, ‘I have been
hugged by Michael Connelly.’ He said, ‘Well, have you heard of
Ian Rankin?’”
One thing led to another, and this summer, she attended a
literary festival in Scotland where the creator of the bestselling
Inspector Rebus mystery series spoke. She arranged to have tea
with the author, and you can bet what she talked about. “He’s
considering it,” Hansen says. “I haven’t gotten a ‘no’ yet.”
This year’s Men of Mystery event is set for Nov. 3 at the Irvine
Marriott Hotel. For more information, call 714-892-3995 or
e-mail Hansen at jhansen36@juno.com. |
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