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Dr. Bill Hillmann is a full-time professor of English and Communications at East-West University in Chicago. He is the author of three books-the novel The Old Neighborhood,and the memoirs Mozos and The Pueblos-and is turning The Old Neighborhood into a trilogy. His writing has appeared at CNN, NPR, and VICE, and in the Chicago Tribune, the Daily Mail, the Toronto Star, and various others. He created the National College Story Slam competition, where students from across the country compete telling five-minute personal stories. Hillmann is a former Chicago Golden Gloves boxing champion and union construction laborer, and is married to Paula Andion Zabalza.
"""A raucous but soulful account of growing up on the mean streets of Chicago, and the choices kids are forced to make on a daily basis. This cool, incendiary rites-of-passage novel is the real deal."" -- Irvine Welsh, author of Trainspotting ""Bill Hillmann's The Old Neighborhood is like a right hook to the chin with brass knuckles, crackling with both bravery and urgency. Brilliantly evoking Nelson Algren's Neon Wilderness and Richard Price's The Wanderers, the novel is unflinchingly honest in its depictions of class and race, a deft portrait of our sometimes-less-than-fair city."" -- Joe Meno, best-selling author of Hairstyles of the Damned ""Hillmann's evocative novel captures the gritty sights, sounds and pulse of street life in Edgewater (Chicago)."" -- Chicago Tribune ""A powerful rites-of-passage novel."" -- The Week ""(A) grittily beautiful, highly anticipated debut novel, which tackles such issues as white flight, the effect of violence on families, and the vicious cycle of gang activity."" -- Electric Literature ""Hillmann's knowledge of his subject matter and his description of place always prevail. The Old Neighborhood is a vivid and honest coming-of-age story about a neighborhood that, even with all its violence and loss, is still Joey Walsh's beloved home."" -- Newcity ""(A) gritty and compelling account of growing up on Chicago's North Side."" -- Largehearted Boy ""Bill Hillmann is one of the last (and most serious) Hemingwayites."" -- Cuarto Poder ""Fantastic."" -- Jot Down ""Bill Hillmann is an author who knows Chicago."" -- BBC Radio ""An extraordinary debut."" -- Book Slam ""Hillmann knows the streets, and he also knows how to tell stories--you might know his work from the Chicago Tribune, Salon.com, and NPR. So it's not surprising to see him deliver a big, sprawling, lacerating, steely-eyed account of one young man's coming of age in a mixed-race family in Chicago. Joe's life spirals downward after his older brother commits a gangland murder; will it head back up? VERDICT: Unvarnished and absorbing; for readers who want to know."" -- Library Journal ""Best New Book"" -- Chicago Sun-Times/Chicago Reader, Best of Chicago 2014 Featured on Dateline (CNN), The Today Show (NBC), Antena 3 (Spain), CYLTV Segovia (Spain) People magazine and NPR."
