About Hesse Phillips
Hesse Phillips (she/they) is a graduate of GrubStreet's Novel Incubator Program. In 2019 they were longlisted for the Bridport Prize in Short Fiction. Their fiction has appeared in The Bridport Review and Embark: A Literary Journal for Novelists. Most recently, they were a finalist for the Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair 2022, where they met their agent. They hold a PhD in Drama from Tufts University and will talk your ear off about all things relating to Elizabethan theatre. Their unpublished novel, Lightborne, is about the death of Christopher Marlowe. Originally from Pittsburgh, Hesse now lives in Madrid, Spain.
Last year, I took a shot. I applied for the Irish Writers Centre’s international Novel Fair. If you haven’t heard of it, I suggest you click that link right now. Picture two days of intense speed-dating with a selection of…
Dread is an instrument. Its sound varies depending on how you play it. We’ve all heard it before, in the background of movies and TV series: there’s the high-pitched note that stretches on and on, the irregularly thudding heartbeat, the…
I sometimes wonder whether, growing up, anyone ever uncovered my “dirty little secret.” I was not always good at hiding it: I misread social cues. I struggled to focus on conversations. I made few friends. I mimicked behavior I saw…
Just over a year ago, in a paroxysm of post-election whythehellnottery, my wife and I packed up our books and moved from Boston, MA to Madrid, Spain. My Spanish was shaky at best, and still is. I spend most days in…
A few months ago, I attended a one-day seminar on revision. The lecturer started off by asking the audience to describe “revision” in one word. Everyone laughed when somebody said, “Hell.” Except me. I know not everyone out there shares…
I identify with Rembrandt in his early self-portrait, The Artist in His Studio. This is pre-socialite Rembrandt, not the velvet-robed, amply mustachioed burgher of his middle period, or the fading ghost with the watery expression of his late self-portraits. In…