Jeffrey Hillard was Writer-in-Residence at The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County from 2015-2016. During his residency, he taught workshops in communities and schools, read his poems, fiction, and essays, and conducted programming, co-sponsored writing events, lead panel discussions, and produced fiction and poems. Jeff is Professor Emeritus (English, Liberal Arts Department) at Mount St. Joseph University, where he taught literature and writing for 35 years, from 1987 – 2022. Jeff is as an award-winning poet and teacher and the author of many books, including The Shadow Family: Poems (1987); River Dwellers: Poems on the Settling of the Ohio River (1993); Pieces of Fernald: Poems and Images of a Place (1998); Story’s Triumph: Mining Your Creative Writing for Its Deepest Riches (non-fiction); Ice Sculpture in the Desert (short-short stories); and in the new Shine in Bedlam YA Historical-Adventure Novel Series, Shine out of Bedlam and Shine in Grit City. In a new spin-off novella series in the Shine in Bedlam Series, The Alphonso Rap came out in September 2019.
His first YA/adult novel, Shine out of Bedlam, came out in 2017. His second novel in the Shine in Bedlam YA Historical-Adventure Series, Shine in Grit City, was published in May 2019. Jeff began a spin-off novella series in the Shine in Bedlam YA Series with The Alphonso Rap, published in September 2019. The Shine spin-off novella, The Dreaming Sheila is forthcoming.
He published the former online magazine, RED! the breakthrough ‘zine (2008 – 2013), which produced and shared stories of transformation in the lives of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals around the world, as well as people who engaged with such transformative happenings.
Jeff received the 2019 Distinguished Scholar Award from Mount St. Joseph University.