Photo: Gage Skidmore / CC BY-SA 3.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Joe Hill spent years writing under a pen name specifically so nobody could coast on the King family name — and when the secret finally got out, it barely mattered, because he'd already proven himself the hard way. Heart-Shaped Box is one of the most legitimately unsettling debut novels I've read in the horror genre, and Locke & Key showed he could translate that same dark imagination into comics without losing a beat. What I love about him is that he doesn't just do "horror-adjacent thriller" — he goes full weird, full emotional, and somehow makes you care deeply about characters stuck in genuinely nightmarish situations. NOS4A2 in particular felt like a love letter to a certain flavor of American dread that only someone raised in Maine could pull off. Multiple Bram Stoker and Locus Awards later, the man has earned every bit of his reputation completely independently.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Joe Hill
- Name (Japanese)
- ジョー・ヒル
- Reading
- じょー・ひる
- Born
- June 4, 1972 (age 54)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Gemini / Rat
- Origin
- Hermon, Maine, United States
- Occupation
- writer / novelist / actor / screenwriter / executive producer
2. Background
- University
- Vassar College
Awards & achievements
- 2008 Locus Award for Best First Novel
- 2006 World Fantasy Award for Best Novella
- 2006 British Fantasy Awards
- 2007 Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel
- 2017 Locus Award for Best Horror Novel
- 2017 Bram Stoker Award for Best Fiction Collection
- 2005 Bram Stoker Award for Best Fiction Collection
- 2011 Eisner Award for Best Writer
4. Personality
Motto
Private
5. Works & records
| Category | Title | Role | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Notable work | 20th Century Ghosts | — | |
| Notable work | Locke & Key | — | |
| Notable work | Heart-Shaped Box | — |
6. Links
- Official sitehttps://joehillfiction.com/
- Xhttps://x.com/joe_hill
- Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B8%E3%83%A7%E3%83%BC%E3%83%BB%E3%83%92%E3%83%AB
Frequently asked questions
When was Joe Hill born?
Born June 4, 1972 (age 54).
Where is Joe Hill from?
Joe Hill is from Hermon, Maine, United States.
What does Joe Hill do?
Joe Hill works as writer, novelist, actor, screenwriter, executive producer.
What is Joe Hill known for?
Notable works include 20th Century Ghosts, Locke & Key, Heart-Shaped Box.
Writer — see all → · Novelist — see all → · More people from United States →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.