News & Events

January 27, 2023: English Reading Series, Brigham Young University, Salt Lake City
March 8-11, 2023: AWP Conference & Bookfair, Seattle Convention Center. Book signing at the River Teeth booth whenever and, on Thursday, March 9th, book signing at the University Nebraska Press booth from 1-1:30PM.
July 19-22, 2023: 50th Anniversary Midwest Writers Workshop, Ball State Alumni Center, Muncie, Indiana.

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“Mr. Cosmos” at New Ohio Review

Nov 27, 2021

November 27, 2021

The title character of “Mr. Cosmos” is my fifth-grade science teacher from Newbury Elementary School in Massachusetts—a man so wonderful he would leap on his desk and do interpretive dances to demonstrate how sap rises in a tree or how a chrysalis transforms into a beautiful butterfly. In the essay, eleven-year-old me faints in the hall, grieves John Lennon, and mummifies a baby doll in spectacular fashion while now-me thinks about the things that save us. The essay is now available online at New Ohio Review—and if you prefer, I’ll even read it to you.

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Past Events

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: A Conversation with Sonya Huber, Jill Christman, & Jody Keisner. A virtual event hosted by 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)

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 …

If This Were Fiction: A Love Story in Essays

If This Were Fiction is a love story—for Jill Christman’s long-ago fiancé, who died young in a car accident; for her children; for her husband, Mark; and ultimately, for herself. In this collection, Christman takes on the wide range of situations and landscapes she encountered on her journey from wild child through wounded teen to mother, teacher, writer, and wife. Published in the American Lives series from University of Nebraska Press September 2022.

“Mr. Cosmos” at New Ohio Review

The title character of “Mr. Cosmos” is my fifth-grade science teacher from Newbury Elementary School in Massachusetts—a man so wonderful he would leap on his desk and do interpretive dances …

Spinning: Against the Rules of Angels

Spinning: Against the Rules of Angels was Creative Nonfiction Magazine’s True Story. Issue #12, 2017. For years, Jill Christman has been waiting for her long-lost lover to communicate with her from beyond the grave. Finally, he walks into her early-morning exercise class, setting her world awhirl.

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

“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

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.