Maria Hahn writes American gothic fiction from the edge of the Midwest, where she lives with her family, a flock of chickens, and a hundred half-finished projects. She holds a degree in anthropology from the Ohio State University, where she studied human stories in all their messy, mythic detail.
She now works in special education, supporting middle schoolers with mild to moderate disabilities - an unexpected calling that fits. Her fiction lives in the margins, blending dirt, ghosts, and memory with old wounds and deep, feral roots.
She writes under the ancestral name Hahn - a surname that has carried her family from 1700s Rhineland forests to Oklahoma land runs to modern Ohio creeks.
The Hahn Lineage
- 1706 → Hans Michell Hahn born, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany
- 1786 → Family settles in Frederick, MD
- 1827 → Adam Hahn dies, Columbiana Co, OH
- 1848 → Andrew Hahn dies, Holt Co, MO
- 1893 → Ben & A.J. Hahn ride in the Cherokee Strip Land Run, OK
- 1952 → Sam Hahn killed by a falling tree, AR
- 2008 → Daryl “Gene” Hahn, Korean-War vet, dies in MD
- Today → Maria Hahn writes from an Ohio creek-side trailer
The Maternal Lineage
- c. 1800 → Temperance Williams Merritt born, Pickens Co, SC
- 1828 → Mary Melinda Madden born (TWM’s 3rd child of 14)
- 1856 → Mary Artiemissa Garvin born (MMM's 6th child of 11), Pickens Co, SC
- 1865 → MMM’s eldest son dies of dysentery, age 16, Confederate Jr. Reserves
- 1887 → MAG marries William H. Moore three months after MMM’s death
- 1895 → Nannie Irene “Nan” Moore born - academic, later manic-depressive
- 1936 → Nancy Elizabeth Bright born and later raised in the orphanage her mother worked
- 1967 → Nancy converted to the Mormon church, and raised her children in the religion
- Today → Maria carries their stories into American-Gothic fiction