James Tate Hill

Thank you! Such a pleasure working with you, Wendy! Looking forward to changing tireless to very, very tired by week's end.

Image of The Writer's Chronicle website with the cover of The Last Supper over a background of lilacs.

Just in time for AWP, The Writer's Chronicle was so kind as to run an excerpt of my forthcoming novel.

This is the second time I've worked with
@jamestatehill.bsky.social at TWC & he is a tireless champion for writers.

If you'll be in #Baltimore, come say hi at booth 527 @sfwp.bsky.social

1. Open the door.
2. Get on the floor.
3. Cut that 3rd and 4th epigraph. That's for you, not the reader.
4. Walk the dinosaur.

#MSWL My main priority still remains to make space in the industry for stories about disability AND stories by disabled authors. If that's you, and your book is in one of my categories, please send! I'll give almost anything a try if it's through a disability lens or has a crip sensibility. :)

me: Wish Hollywood would cool it with the sequels, prequels, and reboots.
also me: Wonder if I have another novel in me with these same characters?

Questions I ask Before Submitting to a Literary Magazine
Does the venue pay?
Do they publish work/authors I admire?
When is the last time I listened to No Jacket Required? No, *really* listened to it?
Have I ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?
Is God dead?

It's the little things that make a Marriott a Marriott.

Not to brag, but last year at AWP, on my 4th or 5th day in L.A., the hotel's housekeeping folded every piece of obviously dirty laundry piled atop the bed I was sleeping in.

Or go straight to the submissions portal: awpwriter.secure-platform.com/applications

Subs for the AWP Award Series close Sat night 11:59pm! Enter yr book-length MS for $ prize & publication. '26 judges: Kiese Laymon (CNF), Maggie Smith (poetry), Weike Wang (short fiction), Justin Torres (novel. Guidelines: www.awpwriter.org/AWP/AWP/Cont...

Pretty excited to try a new shampoo and new face wash in a little bit, so yeah, I guess you can say I believe in reinvention.

Apparently in his day Rudyard Kipling's detractors mocked him with the nickname Rudyard Dudyard and I bet that put him in his place.

Happy 55th birthday to Toy Soldiers star Sean Astin!

I'll be reading at #AWP26, for about 3 minutes each night around 11:53 p.m. before falling into a deep sleep. Please don't join me.

The last 5 words of The Silence of the Lambs are "the silence of the lambs," so might as well ignore every note your beta readers, agent, and editor give you.

Would read the hell out of a memoir or novel titled Proper Ways to Die on Long Island.

They say write what you know & I hope this isn't why for so many weeks I've written nothing.

Wife recently made brown butter Rice Krispies treats, ending the 7-year period in which I forgot marshmallows exist.

The making has been easier than the selling.

Dear 3rd cousin on FB I have no memory of ever meeting,
Your quarterly inquiries into when the next book is coming out, while clearly well-intentioned, feel like the opposite of encouraging when for every writer the answer to this question is maybe never.

Was sort of expecting him to look more fetal at death.

Watched Tender Mercies last night and Mr. Brimley was *checks birth certificates* one year younger during filming than I am now.

Life Hack: Feel exponentially older by checking Wilford Brimley's age during literally anything he was in.

Some people in 2026 just don't return email. And that's fine. As long as you're not someone I've emailed.

I absolutely will!

In my younger and more vulnerable years, my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my head ever since. The world, he said, was gonna roll me.

Not an AWP member? You can subscribe to The Writer's Chronicle for $25/yr (6 issues) or $40 for 2 yrs (12 issues): writerschronicle.awpwriter.org/TWC/TWC/Subs...

Cover of February 2026's Writer's Chronicle, which has an Illustration of a quaint white publishing house standing between dark skyscrapers.

The Feb 2026 issue of The Writer's Chronicle was one of my favorites to edit & I don't have enough characters to tease it properly, so here's the cover & a link to the landing page/table of contents! writerschronicle.awpwriter.org

February Homepage February 2026 Writer's Chronicle issue

My craft essay "The Longest Distance: Time and Timelines" is up at the new issue of The Writer's Chronicle. Many thanks to @jamestatehill.bsky.social, who did a lovely job editing. (For some reason, I'm unable to open it, but maybe it's just me?)

writerschronicle.awpwriter.org

Such an honor to work with you, Karen! One has to log in to view the full piece, but the preview comes up w/o logging in.