Joe Hill (writer)

Did You Know?

• Joe Hill was born to authors Tabitha King and Stephen King, and grew up in Bangor, Maine.
• At age nine, he appeared in the 1982 film Creepshow, directed by George A. Romero and written by his father.
• He married Leanora Legrand in 1999; they divorced in 2010. He married Gillian Redfearn in 2018, and their twins were born in 2022.

Career

In 1997, Hill adopted an abbreviated form of his middle name as his professional surname, aiming to achieve recognition on his own merits rather than as the son of a famous novelist. After gaining independent success, he publicly confirmed his identity in 2007, following a 2006 Variety article that reported it. Hill has received the Ray Bradbury Fellowship, the William L. Crawford award for best new fantasy writer in 2006, the A. E. Coppard Long Fiction Prize in 1999 for "Better Than Home", and the 2006 World Fantasy Award—Novella for "Voluntary Committal". His stories have appeared in magazines such as Subterranean Magazine, Postscripts, and The High Plains Literary Review, and in anthologies including The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror and The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror. His first book, the limited edition collection 20th Century Ghosts (2005), contains fourteen short stories and won the Bram Stoker Award for Best Fiction Collection, the British Fantasy Award for Best Collection, and Best Short Story for "Best New Horror". In October 2007, mainstream US and UK publishers reprinted the collection with one new story. Hill's first novel, Heart-Shaped Box, was published by William Morrow/HarperCollins in February 2007 and by Victor Gollancz Ltd in the UK the following month, reaching number eight on the New York Times bestseller list on April 1, 2007. At the thirty-first Fantasycon in September 2007, the British Fantasy Society awarded him the first Sydney J. Bounds Best Newcomer Award. His comic book series Locke & Key debuted in 2008; the first issue, released on February 20, 2008, sold out its initial print run in one day, and a limited collection from Subterranean Press sold out within 24 hours of being announced.