Russell Hill came to California in 1945 with his mother and two brothers, while his father went off to the mountains of New Mexico to be treated for tuberculosis. That’s the subject of a novel titled Tom Hall, a story that is “as close to me as anything I’ve written,” says Hill
He began teaching English in 1958, and became a technical writer consultant to schools and colleges throughout the western United States. He is the author or co-author of nearly 20 books on the teaching of English, including Snapshot of My Brother and Other Writing Projects.
An avid fly fisherman, Hill has contributed to a variety of outdoor magazines, and is the author of The Search for Sheepheaven Trout, a book of essays about a two-year quest for a rare rainbow trout that lives on the shoulder of Mt. Shasta. Another book in progress is The Ghost Trout, about the Humboldt cutthroat trout of the Nevada high desert.
He spent a summer at the University of Iowa in 1985 as a National Endowment for the
Humanities Whitman Fellow, and while in Iowa City he wrote the first draft of his novel, Cold Creek Cash Store (later reissued by Ballantine Books as The Edge of the Earth)
Hill and his wife, Eleanor, and three children spent a year in Dorset, England, where he was a Fullbright Fellow. Dorset is the setting for his latest novel, Robbie’s Wife, a Hardcase Crime novel that has been translated into Polish and is a candidate for The Edgar Award.
Hill and his wife Eleanor and three children spent a year in Dorset, England, where he was a Fullbright fellow. A novel that came out of that experience, Robbie’s Wife, was
nominated for an Edgar award by the Mystery Writers of America and is now available in France under the title, La Femme de Robbie. A later novel, The Lord God Bird, was
nominated for an Edgar in 2010 and is now under film option and will be published in
Spain next year. A new novel, The Dog Sox, is a quirky crime novel featuring a semipro
baseball team in California’s Central Valley. Another mystery/crime novel, Deadly
Negatives, is slated for Fall publication from Pleasure Boat Studio, A Literary Press in
New York..