Discipline: Literature

Victoria Armour-Hileman

Discipline: Literature
Region: Maryknoll, NY
MacDowell Fellowships: 1997
Victoria Armour-Hileman earned a Ph.D. in literature from the University of Iowa, and an M.F.A. from the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop. Her ambition was to write a best-seller and be interviewed by Oprah Winfrey, but after graduation, she discovered to her dismay that she had degrees but no life experience to write about. She therefore signed up with Maryknoll, a Catholic organization that works overseas with the poor. With Maryknoll, Vicki spent the next six years working with refugees in the Far East. Upon returning to the United States, Vicki became co-director of Maryknoll's program that sends laity to work for social justice in 14 countries. She also volunteered at her local synagogue. She didn’t know that volunteering at a synagogue tends to snow ball into all sorts of things one never imagined doing, including, occasionally, going to rabbinic school, which is what happened in her case. In 2008, she was ordained as a rabbi at Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles, and currently serves as associate dean of religious life and is a chaplain at Emory University. Her first book was a memoir, Singing to the Dead (University of Georgia Press, 2002), about her experience with Mon refugees from Burma. She is currently writing a second memoir (working title: Public Secret). Her life-long ambition is still to write a best-seller and be interviewed by Oprah Winfrey.

Studios

Sorosis

Victoria Armour-Hileman worked in the Sorosis studio.

Sorosis Studio was funded by the New York Carol Club of Sorosis. The small, masonry studio was designed by F. Winsor, Jr., the architect who also designed Savidge Library (1926) and Mixter Studio (1927). At the time of construction, the large porch on the southeast façade offered a spectacular mountain view that has since been obscured…

Learn more