News & Events
Setpember 18, 2026 – “The Writing Life” Keynote, for Write On! Writing Retreat for Graduate Students at Ball State University in Muncie, IN
September 19, 2026 – “Tacking- & Other Strategies for Writing Difficult Material” at The Gathering of Writers, Indiana State Library in Indianapolis, IN
September 24, 2026 – Reading and Discussion at Center for Literature & Medicine, Hiram College in Hiram, OH
October 19-21, 2026 – Directing the Writer-in-Residence Program: Varian Johnson at Ball State University
October 28-31, 2026 – Louisiana Book Festival & Other Southern Goings On
- Wednesday, October 28th – Baton Rouge Public Library Reading & Conversation with Mark Neely
- Thursday, October 29th – Reading & Conversation at Octavia Books in New Orleans
- Friday, October 30th – WordShops, “Beautiful Things: Writing & Publishing Miniature Essays”
- Saturday, October 31st – Featured Author, Louisiana Book Festival, “The Undertow of Grief: Strength & Healing in the Wake of Loss” with Karen McCord, Peggy Sweeney-McDonald, & moderator Megan Holt.
November 7, 2026 – Featured Author at Kentucky Book Festival
Check back for Spring 2027 visits including Ohio University (January), the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa and Birmingham (February), AWP Chicago & Denison University (March), the University of Oregon (April)—plus fingers & toes crossed for NonfictioNow in Dublin (Ireland, not Ohio—in June)!
If This Were Fiction
My new book is out! I’ve been writing essays for over fifteen years, and it’s been a glorious ride, but I’d never put out a collection of just Jill Christman essays between two covers …
Indelible
In teaching news, Ball State honored my work with a group of students dedicated to raising awareness and providing resources around the issue of sexual violence on our nation’s campuses with a 2021 Immersive Learning Faculty Award. If you’re a member of a university community, I hope you’ll check out the details of our project at IndeliblePodcast.com …
Falling – Available for download
“Falling”—a longform essay—won the 2021 Iron Horse Literary Review Long Story Contest and was later released by IHLR released in a beautiful, illustrated, e-single that you can download for free. The essay’s core narrative chronicles the writer’s son’s fall from a sugar maple tree and explores how we navigate the scariest things and most profound losses.
Darkroom: A Family Exposure -Available
Winner of Association of Writers and Writing Programs Award for Creative Nonfiction, Darkroom: A Family Exposure is Jill Christman’s gripping, funny, and wise account of her first thirty years. Although her story runs the gamut of dramatic life events, including childhood sexual abuse, accidental death, and psychological trauma, Christman’s poignant memoir is much more than a litany of horrors; instead, it is an open-eyed, wide-hearted, and good-humored look at a life worth surviving.
Past Events
July 16, 2024 (7:30-9 p.m. EST): “Can I Say This?: Writing the Hard Stuff in Personal Essays & Memoir.” Lafayette Writers Studio.
May 29, 2024: Creative Nonfiction Workshop for the Spalding Naslund-Mann School of Writing Spring Residency. Louisville, KY.
April 25, 2024: Keynote Address for the International Association of Laboratory Schools Conference. Muncie, IN.
October 21, 2023: Workshop & Reading, LitYoungstown Fall Festival, Youngstown
July 22, 2023: Panel & Workshop, Midwest Writers Workshop, Muncie
April 29, 2023: Reading & Workshop, Quill & Ink, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
March 8-11, 2023: AWP Conference & Bookfair, Seattle Convention Center
July 19-22, 2023: 50th Anniversary Midwest Writers Workshop, Ball State Alumni Center
January 27, 2023: English Reading Series, Brigham Young University, Salt Lake City
December 3, 2022: Reading with Katy Didden, Indy Reads, Indianapolis
November 30, 2022: Reading, Indiana University South Bend, South Bend
November 17-19, 2022: Words & Music Festival, New Orleans
November 4-6, 2022: Texas Book Festival, Austin
October 27, 2022: The Multiplicity of Voice: Sonya Huber, Jill Christman, & Jody Keisner. A Room of One’s Own bookstore.
September 14th, 2022: A Conversation with Kate Hopper at Magers & Quinn Booksellers, Minneapolis
September 15th, 2022: Reading & Slideshow hosted by Mark Ehling with Mark Neely & others, Location TBD, Minneapolis
November 17th, 2022: If This Were Fiction Reading at the Words & Music Festival, New Orleans
Jill Spends Time at Essay Daily
“Jill Christman: Indelible (Campus Sexual Assault): a class, a podcast, & a conversation “ (April 13, 2020)
“Jill Christman on Writing Sexual Trauma Under Title IX—‘Indelible in the hippocampus is the laughter’:
Writing Sexual Trauma Under Title IX” (December 13, 2018)
“What Happened on June 21st 2018” (July 5, 2018)
“Jill Christman on Essays to Pry Open Doors: Ashley C. Ford, Alysia Sawchyn, & Brittany Means” (December 22, 2017)
“Jill Christman on Kathy Winograd’s ‘Bathing’” (January 27, 2014)
“5 Reasons I Can’t Stop Reading & Teaching Jo Ann Beard’s ‘The Fourth State of Matter’” (September 16, 2013)
“Dec 2, Brenda Miller on Jill Christman” (December 2, 2012)
