The Hill Writes Blog

Leeds Point is an overtly eco-political novel set in the coastal marshes off New Jersey in 1702, just a few years after the Salem Witch Trials had rocked New England. At that time, the colony was divided into East Jersey and West Jersey. East Jersey along with New York still had religious-based witch laws on the books. West Jersey was part of the Pennsylvania colony. William Penn's experiment in more liberal governance included freedom of religion, and did not have laws requi

Over 3.5 million books will be published in the U.S. this year, most of them self-published, and most of them with AI-generated covers. Many of them are also written, in whole or in part, by AI. This is just one of a multitude of examples of how AI became normalized in our culture virtually overnight. Even as I write this blog post, Wix's AI is popping up on the screen offering to write it for me. I will never use AI to write my books or to generate my book covers. The covers

https://youtu.be/DVys1kqO-Hs?si=OToYMQEE7Wcx_W5n Leeds Point, the site of my eco-political gothic horror novel in sonnet verse, is a spit of land on the mainland of Galloway, New Jersey, near the beautiful Forsythe National Wildlife Refugue, surrounded by salt marsh and looking across the bay at Atlantic City, New Jersey, where I was born. Salt marshes are ecological Edens, and provide enormous protection to our shorelines from storms and flood--critical in the rising tides a

Pennysylvania Poet Michele Mekel and I had the chance to chat about our upcoming DUAL BOOK LAUNCH of Michele's LOVERLESS BEDS poetry collection and my novel in verse LEEDS POINT, coming from Selking Song Publishing this summer. I hope you enjoy our banter, and look for Loverless Beds and Leeds Point at https://selkiesongspress.com/. We'll be sending out the schedule of launch parties and readings soon! --Cindy Ellen Hill

Every Sunday at 5 p.m.,, Vermont poet Rick Agran, http://www.crowmilk.org/about/, hosts Radio Bon Mot, a beautiful hour of beautiful words. Radio Bon Mot includes interviews, readings, and conversation about poetry. You can listen live on *actual radio* or stream it -- or listen later in the archives. This past February I had the privilege of appearing on Radio Bon Mot to read from my latest poetry collection, Love in a Time of Climate Change (Finishing Line Press) and to tal

This summer brings the international release of LEEDS POINT, my overtly eco-political gothic horror novel in sonnet verse, from Selkie Songs Publishing, London. Launch parties are scheduled in London on July 13 and in Montpelier, Vermont on July 28. Check out my events listings,, and more will be coming soon! Meanwhile -- consider being an ARC reader. Get an advance copy of the manuscript (subject to some additional final edits!) if you'll write a brief review when you're don

I have long admired Cleaver international literary journal for its professional, edgy, glittering support of poetry and the arts. So it was with great joy that I got word that my poem "Untitled Mural" had garnished third place in their 2025 visual poetics contest. All the more so because visual poetry is really new to me and not something I have embraced, but rather something I fell into trying at the encouragement of colleagues at the VCFA Summer Manuscript Workshop. In fact

Unlikely Stories is a web literary magazine that has been wrestling with sociopolitical issues since 1998. Their editors describe the mag as activist, transgressive, and unapologetically antifascist. I am pleased as punch, therefor, to have my long-short-story (publisher Jonathan Penton classifies it as a novella) of near-future political apocalypse appearing on the pages of this edition of Unlikely Stories Six. The Last Two Chocolate Chip Cookies in Manhattan was written jus

Plant-Human Quarterly is a stunning online journal that is a project of the Plant-Human Communication Project of the Netherlands, supported by the Dutch Creative Industries Fund. The aim of the Plant-Human Communication Project, and Plant-Human Quarterly, is to bridge science, technology and art to restore our sense of belonging within, and thus our responsibility toward, natural ecosystems. I feel extremely grateful to have two poems in this Autumn Equinox edition -- you can

The Meadow Suite spiraled into being over the final three days of a creative residency at the In Situ Polyculture Commons in Saxtons River, Vermont. I was there to finish up a poetry manuscript I'd been wrestling with, but found the golden meadow calling -- insistently. No poet can resist such a call. I started writing about the meadow on Saturday night, long, running threads of thoughts that went on for hours. I found myself musing on the ephemeral nature of a meadow, on th

Earlier this summer I had the privilege of seeing a poem written collaboratively by myself and Virginia Mazzoni appear in the international, bilingual journal Open Doors/Porte Aperte. As a neophyte student of Italian, I try my hand at writing poetry in Italian, simply because that's one of the ways I process language, so it gives me a chance to learn and develop while comfortably on my home turf, so to speak. My dear friend and Italian teacher Gin Mazzoni is also a poet, and

What does it mean to retreat ? Oxford dictionaries define it as to "withdraw from enemy forces as a result of their superior power or...

https://sonnetcontest.org/2025-winners/2025-winners-sonnets The Maria Faust Sonnet Contest is something I mark ahead on my calendar every year,, seeing as how I am quite admittedly addicted to sonnets. Some years ago I was privileged to received one of the contest's Laureate Prizes, and participated online in their fabulous reading event. This year, I could not be more delighted to have my sonnet The Leveret be named one of the contest's Top Four Sonnets. The contest assemble

https://poetrysocietyofvermont.org/event/thecollaborativepoet/ Feeling isolated in your writing? Join me October 4, 2025 in beautiful West Brattleboro Vermont for a day of collaborative poetry sponsored by the Poetry Society of Vermont and the New England Poetry Club. Featured readings, a collaborative poetry craft talk/workshop, and open mic. And lunch from the Brattleboro Coop! FREE to members of either PSOV or NEPC -- and joining is easy and reasonably priced (and if price

Such wonderful summer party fun to have Dear Booze's Cocktales publish my sonnet "Drinking Sangria in the Garden." Dear Booze has...

Heuristic Halo Press is a gorgeous online literary magazine out of Myanmar (Burma). I'm honored to have my poem Flayed appearing in this...

One problem with writing formal poetry in American English is that we are not a formal people, yah know whud I mean, bub? Yo. Like that....

Vital Truths Fomite Investigations, A Series of Tracts for Our Time I am absurdly fond of little books – a category in which I include...

Happy National Poetry Month! I'm in Florida at the Wolf Media Festival , meeting writers and filmmakers, giving poetry workshops, and...

Becoming involved in National Poetry Month over the last ten years has been transformational for me. April was always, indeed, the...