Schank, Hana

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Schank, Hana

PERSONAL:

Married; husband's name Steven; children: Milo. Education: Columbia University, M.F.A.

ADDRESSES:

CAREER:

Writer, consultant, entrepreneur, and journalist. Hana Schank Consulting (an information architecture and user-experience consulting firm), founder and president.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Travel Writer of the Year award, Worldsurface.com, 2003.

WRITINGS:

A More Perfect Union: How I Survived the Happiest Day of My Life (memoir), Atria Books (New York, NY), 2006.

Author of column for CBS News on the Web.

Contributor to periodicals, including Glamour, Lifeboat: A Journal of Memoir, and Worldsurface.com.

SIDELIGHTS:

Hana Schank is a freelance writer, columnist, and business owner whose company, Hana Schank Consulting, specializes in information architecture, online usability testing, and Web site content audits. In A More Perfect Union: How I Survived the Happiest Day of My Life, Schank explores how she went from being an independent woman to a nervous bride as she recounts the "year of her engagement in all its ridiculous, maddening, and wonderful detail," commented Library Journal reviewer Deborah Bigelow. Schank and boyfriend Steven considered themselves hip, urban intellectuals, and when he finally popped the question, the pair was determined not to become the type of micromanaging, appearance-obsessed, thoroughly annoying bride and groom that they had encountered at other weddings throughout their lives. Despite all best intentions, however, they become what they had hoped to avoid, finally embracing all the kitsch and ritual of a big, modern wedding. Schank agonizes over her choice of wedding dress and spends her time making colorful save-the-date cards. The couple ponders whether to have a Jewish wedding as their parents assemble a prodigious guest list that necessitates a larger venue at an inn in Vermont. The betrothed couple and their mothers struggle to arrange the details in Vermont, sparring with a florist who may or may not be able to rise to the occasion. Schank mixes in a modicum of social commentary, observing that simple wedding celebrations seemed to work fine for previous generations. In addition, she considers the ratio of divorce to elaborate nuptials and concludes that huge weddings do not guarantee lasting wedded union. Along the way, she learns as much about herself as she does about in-law relations, family dynamics, religious symbolism attached to weddings, and the difficulties of accommodating divorced parents. A Kirkus Reviews critic noted that the book is "not at all profound, but middle-class brides ought to enjoy this nuptial memoir."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

A More Perfect Union: How I Survived the Happiest Day of My Life (memoir), Atria Books (New York, NY), 2006.

PERIODICALS

Kirkus Reviews, January 1, 2006, review of A More Perfect Union, p. 34.

Library Journal, January 1, 2006, Deborah Bigelow, review of A More Perfect Union, p. 138.

New York Observer, February 13, 2006, Alexandra Jacobs, "The Dread Nuptial Ritual: Can It Be Done Ironically?," review of A More Perfect Union, p. 8.