Joe Hill: biography, personal life, family, books

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

In the mid-2000s, a new name sounded in literary circles - Joe Hill. The writer specializes in horror and fantasy. Despite the abundance of authors of this profile, Joe stands out from his colleagues. His difference is in fresh ideas and the ability to keep the reader in suspense until the last moment. Many of his fans comment on the fact that his manner and style of writing reminds them of someone else.

Family Relations

Young author Joe Hill is not the only writer in the family. His father is the "king of horrors", the famous Stephen King. For a long time, the son managed to hide his relationship. Joe's mom, Tabitha King, is also a writer and social activist. She creates works that combine realism and fantasy elements.

Joe Hill is not the only child in the family. He has an older sister, Naomi, and a brother, Owen, who is 5 years younger than him. The latter also followed in his parent's footsteps, but leans more towards realism.

In 2017, Owen and his father released a joint novel Sleeping Beauties. The sister is an activist of the LGBT movement.

Biography

Joe Hill was born June 4, 1972 in an American town called Bangor. He received his higher education at Vassar College in the discipline "English literature".

This program studies literature and language from a linguistic point of view, teaches you to read, write and listen competently, instills visual literacy skills.

At the age of 12, starred in a small role in the film "Kaleidoscope of Horrors", written by Stephen King.

Joe started writing in college, at the same time he created some of his first stories. At the end of the university, the young man knew for sure that he would devote his life to literature.

Origin of pseudonym

The aspiring writer did not want his work to be judged as the books of Stephen King's son. Joe Hill is an abbreviation of his first name Joseph and his middle name Hillstrom. He also associates the resulting pseudonym with the famous fighter for the rights of workers, activist Joe Hill, after whom he was named. By the way, his namesake also had a fictitious name. The activist composed songs and poems, was wrongly convicted and sentenced to death. After his death, he became a folk hero.

For a long time, none of the fans and fellow writers knew about the relationship between Hill and King. Only in 2005, after the release of the collection "Ghosts of the Twentieth Century", did a rumor about this appear. Officially aboutSteven and Joe's relationship was announced in early 2007.

Now both writers show their kinship in every possible way, including in social networks, where they like to joke with each other. Together they created several stories.

Creativity by Joe Hill

Joseph's first stories were published when he was a university student. They were written in the fantasy genre. The works were bought but only published in magazines or contemporary horror anthologies. His invented stories could be read in many famous literary magazines. Major publishing houses in America refused him, but it was a payment for anonymity.

The author himself is not so flattering about his early stories, calling some of them terrible, although technically good.

In 2005, the English publishing house PS Publishing changed their anger to mercy by agreeing to release Joe Hill's book "Ghosts of the Twentieth Century". It was a collection of 14 stories. The introduction to the anthology was written by the famous American author Christopher Golden. The collection was received well by critics, and so were readers.

For the stories "Better Than Home" and "Voluntary Confinement" Joseph received prestigious awards. Several stories in this book were nominated but did not receive coveted prizes.

Famous books

In 2007, Joe Hill's first novel, The Heart-Shaped Box, was published. The title of the piece is a reference to the cult song of Nirvana.

Three years later, the writer created "Horns". gloomya story that sometimes the devil is able to punish sinners on earth.

In 2013, Joseph introduced readers to the novel NOS4A2 (pronounced Nosferatu). In Russia, the book is called "The Land of Christmas".

In 2015, the author again pleases his fans with an anthology of short stories. It came out under the uncomplicated title "The Best in Science Fiction and Fantasy".

Fireman by Joe Hill was released in 2016 and was voted the best horror book of 2017. Received many accolades from literary critics. The film rights were purchased by 20th Century Fox before the novel was published.

In addition to the listed works, the middle son of the "king of horrors" has in his bins unpublished novels, including "The Tree of Fear", on which he worked for several years, and collections of un titled stories. In total, he has about 30 short stories and micro-stories.

Joe Hill is the creator of the popular Locke Family and Key comic book series.

The writer often arranges open readings of his novels. While doing this, he puts red devil horns on his head, which pleases his fans.

Screenings

Author of numerous stories, Joe Hill, has not yet been able to overtake his father, who has 55 novels and more than 140 short stories to his credit. He is also far from him in terms of the number of adaptations of his works, although the rights to books are redeemed even before publication. Today, Stephen King is considered the most frequently filmed writer.

Even before The Heart-Shaped Box was published, the film rights were bought by Warner Bros. pictures. Directed by Tom Pabst.

In 2013, a film based on the novel "The Horns" was released, bearing the same name. The role of Ignatius Parrish was played by Daniel Radcliffe. The tape did not live up to the expectations of the rental, but it still found its audience.

Based on the book "The Land of Christmas", a film adaptation is also being prepared, the series will be released in 2019. The author himself will also act as an executive producer.

20th Century Fox has acquired the rights to Fireman. It is known that director Louis Leterrier will work on the film. No release date yet.

Joseph co-authored two short stories with his father: "Full Throttle" and "In the Tall Grass". The latter is also being made into a film directed by Vincenzo Natali.

Awards

Joseph King is the winner of many authoritative literary awards.

• Bram Stoker Award for the collection "Ghosts of the Twentieth Century" and the novel "The Heart-Shaped Box". This award is presented once a year for excellence in horror literature.
• British Fantasy Award for the same collection.
• Ghosts of the Twentieth Century International Guild of Horror Award for Achievement in Horror. The award is not being presented at this time.
• In 2006, Joe Hill received the award. William Crawford for Best Debut Book. We are talking about the same collection.
• World Fantasy Story Award“Voluntary Detention.”
• Lord Ruthven Award 2014 for Christmasland. The award is presented for the best writing about vampires. Lord Ruthven is the first recorded vampire in a work of literature.
• Spanish Horror Writers Association Award for the same novel. Won the Foreign Book nomination.
• Graham Masterton Award for "NOS4A2".
• For the book "Fireman" Joe Hill also received two awards: the Locus and Goodrids awards. The second is interesting because the winners are chosen by the readers. Locus also named "The Heart-Shaped Box" as the best debut work in 2008.
• This is Horror Award in 2012 in two categories at once: comic of the year and story of the year. For The Locke Family and the Key, he received the award again in 2013.

For a not too long creative path, the writer can boast of many literary distinctions.

Private life

In 1999, Joseph married Riley Dixon. They had three children. The couple divorced in 2010.

Currently, Joe Hill's residence in the country is New England, one of the six regions of the United States.

Reviews

Naturally, readers' tastes differ, but few people remain indifferent to the work of Joe Hill. His books cause horror, melancholy, disgust, but it becomes impossible to put aside the novel. In this he is similar to Stephen King.

Readers note his mastery of the word, but at the same time they say that it is impossible not to notice the similarities in plots and some characters in the son and father. However, almost no one woulddid not notice if the information about the relationship was still hidden. The crucial point is that both writers have the same readership. And after revealing the secret, all the fans of Stephen King took up reading the works of his son to make sure that the apple does not fall far from the tree.

Joseph's work was also appreciated by his colleagues. Christopher Golden, in the preface to his first collection of short stories, stated that he writes with elegance and delicacy, and his works feel the spirit of a bygone era.

French director Alexandre Azha, who is working on the film adaptation of the novel "The Horns", left a rave review for Joe Hill, saying that he was so amazed by the book that he could not resist the temptation to plunge into this diabolical underworld.

Now that Joe Hill no longer hides whose child he is, all readers are comparing his work to Stephen King books. Naturally, surpassing the "king of horrors" now seems impossible. But the son inherited from his father the ability to make a mystical story out of any ordinary thing. So it is likely that by the age of 70, Joseph will not only catch up with Stephen, but will also be ahead of him by some criteria.