Jeffrey Hillard began his residency at the 2015 Books by the Banks Book Festival, in conversation with friend and author Anthony Marra. He then focused his efforts on teaching the craft of writing, hosting poetry workshops and readings throughout National Poetry Month. He also facilitated extremely popular creative writing workshops on topics such as self-publishing and writing short stories and memoirs. Hillard also visited local schools, including Dulles Elementary and St. Xavier High School and inspired budding writers of all ages.
One of Hillard's greatest accomplishments was bringing the Writer-in-Residence to a wider audience, through the creation of the Inside the Writer's Head blog and podcast. There, he posted about books, writing and creativity and interviews local and nationally recognized authors.
Hillard is an Associate Professor of English and Modern Languages at Mount St. Joseph University. He is also an award-winning poet and author of four published books, 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), and Story's Triumph: Mining Your Creative Writing for Its Deepest Riches . His first young adult novel, Shine out of Bedlam , is scheduled for release in November and two new books of poems, Havana Riffs: Poems on Cuba and North Truro Light: Poems will be released in December, 2016. He is also the Publisher and Editor of RED! the breakthrough 'zine, a webzine which shares stories of transformation in the lives of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals around the world.
Inside the Writer's Head Blog. Jeff's post on books, writing, and creativity.
Inside the Writer's Head Podcast. Conversations on books and writing.
Episode 2: Celebrating African American authors. Warning: Podcast contains some explicit language during book excerpt reading.
Top Ten Books to Inspire College Students. Jeffrey uses these timeless books to inspire creativity and freedom of thought for his students.
Creative Writing Students Top Ten Favorite Books. Jeffrey asked his creative writing students to pick their all-time top ten favorite books.