# Joe Hill (writer)

Joseph Hillström King (born June 4, 1972), better known by the pen name Joe Hill, is an American writer. His work includes the novels Heart-Shaped Box (2007), Horns (2010), NOS4A2 (2013), and The Fireman (2016); the short story collections 20th Century Ghosts (2005) and Strange Weather (2017); and the comic book series Locke & Key (2008–2013). Awards include: Bram Stoker Awards, British Fantasy Awards, and an Eisner Award.

## Early life

Joe Hill was born in 1972 to authors Tabitha King (née Spruce) and Stephen King. He was born and grew up in Bangor, Maine. His younger brother Owen King is also a writer, and his older sibling is Naomi King.
At age 9, he appeared in the 1982 film Creepshow, directed by George A. Romero, which co-starred and was written by his father.

## Career

Hill chose to use an abbreviated form of his middle name for his professional surname in 1997, out of a desire to succeed based solely on his own merits rather than as the son of one of the world's best-selling and most-recognized living novelists. After achieving a degree of independent success, Hill publicly confirmed his identity in 2007, the year his first novel came out, after an article the previous year in Variety reported his identity.
Hill is a recipient of the Ray Bradbury Fellowship. He has also received 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 a variety of magazines, such as Subterranean Magazine, Postscripts and The High Plains Literary Review, and in many anthologies, including The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror (ed. Stephen Jones) and The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror" (ed. Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link & Gavin Grant).
Hill's first book, the limited edition collection 20th Century Ghosts (published in 2005 by PS Publishing), showcases fourteen of his short stories and won the Bram Stoker Award for Best Fiction Collection, together with the British Fantasy Award for Best Collection and Best Short Story for "Best New Horror". In October 2007, Hill's mainstream US and UK publishers reprinted 20th Century Ghosts, without the extras published in the 2005 slipcased versions, but including 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 UK the following month. The novel reached number eight on the New York Times bestseller list on April 1, 2007. In September, 2007, at the thirty-first Fantasycon, the British Fantasy Society awarded Hill the first ever Sydney J. Bounds Best Newcomer Award. In 2008, Hill's comic book series Locke & Key was released. The first issue, released on February 20, 2008, sold out its initial publication run in one day. A collection of the series in limited form from Subterranean Press sold out within 24 hours of being announced.
Hill's second novel, Horns, was published in February 2010. A film based on the novel was released in 2014, directed by Alexandre Aja and starring Daniel Radcliffe and Juno Temple. NOS4R2, his third novel, was published in April 2013. The novel peaked at number five on the New York Times Best Seller list. Hill's fourth novel, The Fireman, was released in May 2016. It entered the New York Times Best Seller list at number one, making it his highest-ranked novel.
In 2019, In the Tall Grass, co-written with his father Stephen King, was released as a Netflix Original film. Filming for the Locke & Key TV series, also by Netflix, began in the middle of January 2019 and the first season aired in February 2020. AMC began broadcasting a TV series of NOS4R2 in July 2019. The first season of Creepshow, released in September 2019, featured an adaptation of Hill's short story "By the Silver Waters of Lake Champlain".
Following DC Comics's announcement in June 2019 that it would suspend publication of its Vertigo Comics imprint, they announced that Hill would oversee and share the writing for a new horror line, Hill House Comics. which Hill has begun discussing with editor Mark Doyle in 2017. The line was originally to be titled Vertigo Fall, then Joe Hill's Vertigo Fall, before being given its eventual name.
Among Hill's unpublished works is one partly completed story with his father ("But Only Darkness Loves Me"), which is held with the Stephen King papers at the Special Collections Unit of the Raymond H Fogler Library at the University of Maine in Orono, Maine.

## Personal life

In 1999, Joe Hill married Leanora Legrand, whom he met at Vassar College. They have three children together. The couple divorced in 2010.
In 2018, he married British publisher Gillian Redfearn. Their twins were born in 2022.

## Awards

* "Better Than Home" (A. E. Coppard Long Fiction Prize)
* "Voluntary Committal" (World Fantasy Award for Best Novella)
* 20th Century Ghosts (Bradbury Fellowship)
* 20th Century Ghosts (2005 Bram Stoker Award for Best Fiction Collection)
* 20th Century Ghosts (2005 International Horror Guild Award for Best Collection)
* "Best New Horror" (2005 Bram Stoker Award for Best Long Fiction)
* 20th Century Ghosts (2006 British Fantasy Award for Best Collection)
* 20th Century Ghosts (2006 William L. Crawford award for best new fantasy writer)
* "Best New Horror" (2006 British Fantasy Award for Best Short Story)
* Sydney J. Bounds Best Newcomer Award – 2007
* Heart-Shaped Box (2007 Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel)
* Heart-Shaped Box (2008 International Thriller Writers Award for Best First Novel)
* Locke & Key (2009 British Fantasy Award for Comic/Graphic Novel)
* Locke & Key (2011 Eisner Award for Best Writer)
* Locke & Key (2012 British Fantasy Award for Comic/Graphic Novel)
* The Fireman (2017 Locus Award for Best Horror Novel)
* Strange Weather (2017 Bram Stoker Award for Best Fiction Collection)
* Strange Weather (2018 British Fantasy Award for Best Collection)