Hunter, Travis 1969-

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Hunter, Travis 1969-

PERSONAL:

Born 1969, in Florence, SC; children: Rashaad (son). Ethnicity: African American. Education: Attended Clark Atlanta University, Ohio State University, and University of Washington; Georgia State University, B.A., 2002. Hobbies and other interests: Golf, traveling, reading.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Stone Mountain, GA. Agent—Elaine Koster, Elaine Koster Literary Agency, 55 Central Park W., Ste. #6, New York, NY 10023.

CAREER:

Novelist and songwriter; founder of Jimrose Publishing House, Hearts of Men Foundation, and the Travis Hunter Theater Company. Military service: U.S. Army, served in military intelligence.

WRITINGS:

NOVELS

The Hearts of Men, Jimrose Publishing House (Pine Lake, GA), 1999, reprinted, Villard (New York, NY), 2000.

Married but Still Looking, Villard (New York, NY), 2002.

Trouble Man, Villard (New York, NY), 2003.

A One Woman Man, One World (New York, NY), 2004.

Something to Die For, One World (New York, NY), 2006.

Also author of Married but Still Looking, an Off-Broadway play adapted from the novel.

SIDELIGHTS:

Songwriter and novelist Travis Hunter is the author of such critically acclaimed works as Married but Still Looking and A One Woman Man. Hunter discovered his love of music while serving in the U.S. Army, and he parlayed his interest in storytelling into literature. In 1999 Hunter released his first novel, The Hearts of Men, through his own company, the Jimrose Publishing House. After exhibiting The Hearts of Men at the 2000 Book Expo America, Hunter attracted the attention of the editors at Random House, who published the novel under their Villard imprint.

Set in Atlanta, Georgia, The Hearts of Men concerns twenty-eight-year-old Prodigy Banks, a former car thief who is trying to go straight. A notorious womanizer with a reputation for violence, Prodigy turns to Winston "Papa Doc" Fuller, a community elder who counsels the young man. In turn, Prodigy becomes a mentor to his cousin, Jermaine, who is enticed by the lure of the streets, and he volunteers at a youth center, where he befriends young Blake and falls for the boy's charming mother, Nina. "Hunter's prose isn't subtle as it preaches male self-reliance and responsibility, but his landscape of characters and their quandaries are sho'nuff true to life," noted Ahmad Wright in the Black Issues Book Review.

A retired basketball star jeopardizes his relationship with the woman he loves in Married but Still Looking, Hunter's follow-up to The Hearts of Men. Handsome and arrogant, Genesis Styles has never been satisfied with just one woman. Though he is engaged to Terri, the owner of a small bookstore, Genesis continues his cheating ways, and he refuses to heed the advice of his best friend, Prodigy Banks, who warns him of the consequences of his actions. Confronted by his family, however, Genesis finally attempts to change his behavior. "Hunter is to be commended for creating such a delightfully despicable and wicked character, who, as it turns out, really does have a [conscience]," observed Black Issues Book Review contributor Glenn Townes.

Jermaine Banks, Prodigy's cousin, is the focus of Trouble Man, a "very emotional story," observed Booklist critic Lillian Lewis. A street hustler who was raised by a single mother, Jermaine deals drugs to provide for his young son. Jermaine's world changes, however, when his father, a shady businessman, enters his life for the first time. A Publishers Weekly reviewer deemed the novel an "earnest, well intentioned exploration of the complexities of the urban African-American male experience."

In A One Woman Man, a man with a troubled past comes to the aid of his family. When schoolteacher Dallas Dupree is falsely charged with a crime, he turns to his older brother, Priest, a police officer turned drug dealer. Priest also helps his sister, Carmen, who believes her new husband is harboring secrets. "Another good Hunter novel about family love and sibling respect," wrote Lillian Lewis in Booklist.

Something to Die For follows Nasir Lassiter, a promising college athlete who served five years in prison for a murder he didn't commit. After his release, Nasir returns to his Atlanta neighborhood and learns that he has a daughter, Brandy, who lives with her mother at the home of Alonzo, a wealthy but dangerously volatile businessman. Nasir also discovers that his own mother has become addicted to heroin in his absence. A critic on the Urban Reviews Web site called the work "an emotional tale about a young man trying to make things right again."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Black Issues Book Review, July, 2001, Ahmad Wright, review of The Hearts of Men, p. 33; July-August, 2002, Glenn Townes, review of Married but Still Looking, p. 35.

Booklist, May 1, 2001, Lillian Lewis, review of The Hearts of Men, p. 1665; April 1, 2002, Lillian Lewis, review of Married but Still Looking, p. 1306; August 1, 2003, Lillian Lewis, review of Trouble Man, p. 1953; May 1, 2004, Lillian Lewis, review of A One Woman Man, p. 1545.

Ebony, November, 2006, review of Something to Die For, p. 42.

Essence, June, 2001, "Take Note," p. 80.

Kirkus Reviews, July 1, 2006, review of Something to Die For, p. 649.

Publishers Weekly, July 11, 2001, review of The Hearts of Men, p. 61; April 22, 2002, review of Married but Still Looking, p. 51; July 21, 2003, review of Trouble Man, p. 175.

Washington Post Book World, June 16, 2002, review of Married but Still Looking, p. 15.