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James W. Hall Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Interview  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

James W. Hall

James W. Hall

James W. Hall Biography

James W. Hall is an American author and professor from Florida. He has written several novels, poetry, a collection of short stories, and a collection of essays. His novels include The Big Finish, Dead Last, Silencer, Under Cover of Daylight, Hard Aground, Gone Wild, Buzz Cut, Red Sky at Night, and Hells Bay. His writing includes the collection of personal essays Hot Damn, written for the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel's Sunshine Magazine, Washington Post and Miami Herald.

His two short story collections are Paper Products and Over Exposure. Over Exposure includes the short story "The Carch", winner of an Edgar Award. He also won a John D. MacDonald Award for Excellence in Florida Fiction, presented by the JDM Bibliophile.

He was a Fulbright professor of literature in Spain and is a professor of literature and writing at Florida International University. He and his wife Evelyn and their three dogs divide their time between South Florida and the mountains of western North Carolina.

James W. Hall's website

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Interview

James Hall discusses how his roots have influenced his writing, why he first started to write and the books that have influenced him.

Where are you from? How--if at all--has your sense of place colored your writing?
I grew up in a small town in Kentucky, but I've spent the last thirty years in Florida. Twenty-five of that has been in Miami and the Florida Keys. Even after all that time, I still find Florida wonderfully exotic, strange and beautiful and full of the oddest wildlife, both animal and human. I find the weather, the quality of sunlight, the always-changing scent on the seabreeze to be a powerful force. South Florida particularly has a reputation as a wild and dangerous place, and, yes, it is. But it's also very beautiful, still very natural and unspoiled in many ways. My characters are usually very aware of and affected by the settings they inhabit. It would seem silly for characters to move through an environment as rich and influential as South Florida and not be moved by it in some way.

When and why did you begin writing? When did you first consider yourself a writer?
For many years in college I wrote poetry. Then after graduating, I continued my studies of poetry in grad school at Johns Hopkins University and University of Utah. I published four books of poetry and lots of short stories in literary magazines before I ...

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Books by this Author

Books by James W. Hall at BookBrowse
Going Dark jacket Silencer (Thorn Series #11) jacket Blackwater Sound jacket
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Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for James W. Hall but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • Michael Gruber

    Michael Gruber

    Michael Gruber was born and raised in New York City, and educated in its public schools. He went to Columbia, earning a BA in English literature. After college he did editorial work at various small magazines in New York,... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Blackwater Sound

    Try:
    Tropic of Night
    by Michael Gruber

  • Steve Hamilton

    Steve Hamilton

    Steve Hamilton is the New York Times–bestselling author of twelve novels, most recently The Second Life of Nick Mason and Die a Stranger.  His debut, A Cold Day in Paradise,won both an ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Blackwater Sound

    Try:
    Blood Is The Sky
    by Steve Hamilton

We recommend 3 similar authors

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