Saint Paul Media

Sean Hill

Sean Hill was born and raised in Milledgeville, Georgia's former capital and home to Flannery O'Connor and the Central State Hospital also known as the State Asylum for the Insane. He left Milledgeville to earn an AB and MA in English at the University of Georgia in Athens, where he started writing poetry and brewing beer. While in Athens, Sean was an instructor at the University of Georgia, and a house painter, and renovated houses with several construction crews including Clown Construction, whose motto was "How hard can it be?" Three of his years in Athens were spent living in a solitary 10' x 50' trailer on an oak-shaded lot, which he fondly remembers.

After spending nine years in Athens, Sean moved to Houston, Texas, to pursue a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at the University of Houston. Upon graduating from UH, he moved to Bemidji, Minnesota, to be with his sweetheart and spend the next three years getting his MFA thesis published. It was in Bemidji that Sean met Jonathan Hatch and the rest of the Saint Paul Media crew. Bemidji has been his base since 2003, but he's also spent significant and productive chunks of time away from Bemidji, on fellowships at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and at Stanford University. In Bemidji he's worked as a cook at Concordia Language Villages, a part-time librarian, and a writers' conference coordinator.

Besides reading and writing poetry, Sean likes walking on frozen water, cross-country skiing, bird watching, riding his bike, kayaking, cooking, and collecting and taking pictures with Polaroid Land Cameras. His favorite is a Polaroid 340, which he inherited from his great-uncle. He also has a special place in his heart for Scotch whiskies but has been known to enjoy an Irish whiskey, a Rye whiskey, a Tennessee whiskey, and a Bourbon on occasion. He lives and writes in Bemidji, Minnesota.