James Tate Hill

James Tate Hill is the author of the memoir Blind Man’s Bluff (W. W. Norton), a New York Times Editors’ Choice and Washington Independent Review of Books Favorite Book of 2021. His fiction debut, Academy Gothic, won the Nilsen Literary Prize for a First Novel. Originally From West Virginia, he lives in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Ten Things I Can’t Do Without

1. Whole bean coffee, the kind with ridiculously specific tasting notes like watermelon Jolly Rancher and melancholy almond
2. Memories of malls
3. My favorite people (they know who they are)
4. “Take Me Home Tonight” by Phil Collins
5. Stephen King’s Pet Sematary
6. The month of October
7. An audiobook while I’m walking
8. Good wine, the kind with ridiculously specific tasting notes like April fig and smoky paperback
9. Close basketball games
10. Five weeks of Christmas music, no more and no less