Nathan Hill has always loved books. As a child, he learned that a trip to the mall might not yield a new toy, but it would get him a book. “My parents were not huge readers,” says Hill, affirming, however, they certainly encouraged the pastime.
The eldest of three siblings, Hill was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. His father worked his way through management within the Kmart Corporation, necessitating family moves around the Midwest every few years whenever a promotion came along. An itinerant childhood resulted for Hill, who credits books with keeping him company in that awkward stage of making new friends and settling in at yet another school.
At a young age, Hill became a huge fiction fan. In junior and senior high school, he dove into high-stakes drama and sci-fi novels like those by Michael Crichton. He eventually gravitated to thick tomes more Dickensian in nature, with complex plots and a cast of characters, like those by John Irving.
After graduating from high school in Wichita, Kansas, Hill attended the University of Iowa, studying English literature. Realizing he would have to find gainful employment upon graduation, he added a journalism major in his last year of college. He landed his first after-college job as a news reporter for The Gazette in Cedar Rapids, where he honed his research skills.
After two years, Hill left this job to pursue a master of fine arts from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. For Hill, this meant more reading—a lot more. “We had to read one novel per class per week,” he explains. With three classes per semester, that meant a total of three books a week. Over the years, Hill says he has read thousands of books; his reading clip now holds steady at about one book every seven to 10 days.
Hill had long harbored a dream to write a book. However, he says, “conceptualizing and actually doing it are two very different things.” He eventually moved to a studio apartment in New York to focus on this goal. His close quarters in the city prompted an idea for a short story he wrote that, years later, became the basis for his second novel.
As he wrote, Hill developed his unique voice—one strongly influenced by renowned twentieth-century English author Virginia Woolf. “Reading her is the closest I will come to being in someone else’s head,” he remarks.
An important character in Hill’s life is Jenni Groyon. She first entered his story when both were college students. On weekend visits home to Kansas, Hill met Groyon through his cousin. Over the next few years, the two became friends, kept tabs on one another, and eventually started dating. Groyon graduated with a bachelor’s degree in bassoon performance from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and, since 2001, has been a member of the Naples Philharmonic.
While Hill was living in New York, he made monthly visits to see Groyon in Naples. As the relationship grew more serious, they decided to both actively seek employment in the other’s place of residence. The first one who found a job would make the move to the other one’s city. Hill landed a job first in Southwest Florida, teaching a composition class at Florida Gulf Coast University. Soon after, Jenni Groyon became Jenni Groyon Hill, and the couple has made Naples their home since 2006.
Moving to Naples full-time was a culture shock for Hill. “It was so laid-back,” he says, adding, “it is criminally beautiful.” As a Midwesterner who finally realized winters were optional, Hill was sold on Naples. He found teaching to be a gratifying career and embraced all that the area offered, delighting in the beach and taking up tennis, which he dabbled in during high school. He and Jenni have a favorite date-night spot—the bar at The Bay House, where they like to sip martinis and slurp oysters. When opportunities present, the couple travels to high-nature, low-civilization destinations. These trips have taken them to the ends of the earth: Patagonia, Tasmania, Australia, and the fjords of Norway.
Hill writes from a well-lit, spare-bedroom-turned-writing-studio in the couple’s North Naples home. “I have a method,” he explains. “I wake up, read, drink my coffee, then sit at my desk and write for a few hours.” Hill’s priority is to write five to seven longhand pages every day. When asked why he prefers a pen and paper, he shares that he’s been doing it this way forever. “I tend to be more creative when I write slower. I am a fast typist. Writing by hand takes longer. I find I have better ideas and more original thoughts, and I don’t edit as I go.”
By early afternoon, Hill changes direction and types out each handwritten page. He then devotes the rest of the afternoon to any necessary research, reading, and correspondence. Research has become a major part of his work as a writer; he infuses his novels with detail, even adding bibliographies to his already lengthy novels.
His first, The Nix (Alfred A. Knopf, 2016), is a satire about growing up in the United States. It quickly became a New York Times bestseller. Hill’s second novel, Wellness (Alfred A. Knopf, 2023), is an epic volume detailing the changing relationship of a modern Chicago couple. It was named an Oprah’s Book Club pick.
“Both my books contain themes against sanctimony,” he explains. “Humans assume they know so much about other humans; sometimes we don’t even understand our own motivations.” Hill says he wants people to read and allow their minds to be changed. “Remain curious about others and the world around you,” he advises.
Reading, Hill reveals, has made him a better reader of people in general. “I’m more understanding of people and more patient with them.” Writing, he explains, has provided an education in patience and has given him a grace for others.
Hill is currently working on freelance projects. He’s making notes on possible new characters, has a drama in mind for his third novel, and is even trying his hand at screenwriting. And he continues to read. The latest work by fellow American novelist Jane Smiley, Lucky, sits on his bookshelf waiting to be devoured next.
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