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.[2]
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.[3][4]
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,[8] together with the British Fantasy Award for Best Collection and Best Short Story for "Best New Horror".[9] 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 at a book store reading in March 2007
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.[10] In September, 2007, at the thirty-first Fantasycon, the British Fantasy Society awarded Hill the first ever Sydney J. Bounds Best Newcomer Award.[9] 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.[11] A collection of the series in limited form from Subterranean Press sold out within 24 hours of being announced.[12]
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. NOS4A2, 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.[13] AMC began broadcasting a TV series of NOS4A2 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".[14]
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.[15] 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 eventually being given its eventual name.[16]
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.[17]
Personal life
In 1999, Joe Hill married Leanora Legrand, whom he had 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.[18]
Awards
"Better Than Home" (A. E. Coppard Long Fiction Prize)[19]
"Throttle" (2009, written in collaboration with Stephen King), He Is Legend: An Anthology Celebrating Richard Matheson (also included in the audiobookRoad Rage)
"Best New Horror", "20th Century Ghost", "Pop Art", "You Will Hear the Locust Sing", "Abraham's Boys", "Better Than Home", "The Black Phone", "In The Rundown", "The Cape", "Last Breath", "Dead-Wood", "The Widow's Breakfast", "My Father's Mask", "Voluntary Committal", "Bobby Conroy Comes Back from the Dead", "The Saved", "The Black Phone: The Missing Chapter", "Scheherazade's Typewriter"
Full Throttle (2019), collection of 4 short stories, 9 novelettes and 1 novella:
"Throttle" (novelette, with Stephen King), "Dark Carousel" (novelette), "Wolverton Station", "By the Silver Water of Lake Champlain" (novelette), "Faun" (novelette), "Late Returns" (novelette), "All I Care About Is You" (novelette), "Thumbprint" (novelette), "The Devil on the Staircase", "Twittering from the Circus of the Dead", "Mums" (novelette), "In the Tall Grass" (novella, with Stephen King), "You Are Released" (novelette), "A Little Sorrow"
Uncollected short stories:
"The Lady Rests" (1997), Palace Corbie 7
"The Collaborators" (1998), Implosion 8
"Jude Confronts Global Warming" (2007), Subterranean Press online magazine, spring issue
Shadow Show: Stories in Celebration of Ray Bradbury: "By the Silver Water of Lake Champlain" (2014), one-shot, adapted by Jason Ciaramella and illustrated by C. P. Wilson III
"You Are Released": Flight or Fright (2018), ed. Stephen King and Bev Vincent
Miscellaneous credits
"Pop Art" was reprinted in 2007 by Subterranean Press as a chapbook featuring illustrations by Gahan Wilson. As well, 52 lettered (A–ZZ) hard covers and 150 numbered soft covered chapbooks were signed by Hill.[31]
"Fanboyz", a comic script, was written for Spider-Man Unlimited 8 (2005). The story was illustrated by Seth Fisher.
"The Saved", first published in The Clackamas Literary Review in 2001 and also as part of the bonus material included in the 2005 deluxe slipcased edition of 20th Century Ghosts, was reprinted in December 2007 as part of PS Publishing's annual Holiday Chapbook series, available, free of charge, to subscribers of the quarterly magazine Postscripts.
"Thumbprint", first published in Postscripts #10 in 2007, was reprinted as a chapbook in summer 2008 to accompany the anthology Subterranean: Tales of Dark Fantasy published by Subterranean Press.
"By the Silver Water of Lake Champlain" (2019), segment of series Creepshow, directed by Tom Savini, based on novelette "By the Silver Water of Lake Champlain"
NOS4A2 (2019–2020), series created by Jami O'Brien, based on novel NOS4A2
"Twittering from the Circus of the Dead" (2020), segment of series Creepshow, directed by Greg Nicotero, based on short story "Twittering from the Circus of the Dead"
