Terence Hawkins

Background

Terence Hawkins was born in 1956 in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, where many of his family were coal miners. He received his Bachelor's degree in history from Yale University, where he was publisher of the Yale Daily News, and later received a law degree from the University of Wisconsin. He returned to New Haven, Connecticut in 1985, where he practiced as a trial lawyer specializing in medical malpractice.

In 2011, Hawkins proposed that Yale host a summer writing program. In 2012, he became the founding Director of the Yale Writers' Conference. Under his leadership, it rapidly grew to include three hundred students from every continent but Antarctica. Its faculty have included Colum McCann, Tom Perrotta, Colm Toibin, Julia Glass, and Nicholson Baker.

In 2015, Hawkins started the Company of Writers, offering authors' services to writers at every level of their careers. He lives in Connecticut with his muse and keeper, the enigmatic and pithy Mrs. H.

The Rage of Achilles

Hawkins' first novel, The Rage of Achilles, is a novelization of Homer's The Iliad, told in modern and sometimes graphic language. Informed by Julian Jaynes' revolutionary theory of the development of consciousness, the breakdown of bicameralism, it depicts the formation of the modern mind in the crucible of bronze-age warfare. Critics have said the novel "earns...a seat next to The Iliad as both companion and commentary." It was published in 2009 by Casperian Books.

American Neolithic

In his second novel, American Neolithic, Hawkins moves from the Homeric past to a dystopian future.. Set in a moving-target day after tomorrow, its United States has become a Police State Lite: Drones patrol the skies; the black-uniformed Homeland Police have exclusive jurisdiction over any matter touching on national security; the Patriot Amendments have rendered civil liberties nominal. Into this world comes the last literate member of the last surviving band of Neanderthals, only to be caught up in a hip-hop murder and a courtroom confrontation with scientific creationism, the state religion of what his cynical lawyer calls a "trailer park theocracy."

American Neolithic received extensive critical praise. Kirkus Reviews named it a Best Book of 2014, calling it "a towering work of speculative fiction." Rain Taxi described it as "a special novel; thematically rich, it also provides all the pleasures of a hard-boiled thriller. The unique premise and lovingly crafted characters will stay with you long after you’ve closed the book." Writers' Island said "Terence Hawkins can write—he keeps a headlong high-wire act going all through the book, with pacing that never flags and a nightmarish world that’s frighteningly believable." The Chicago Center for Literature and Photography included it in its 2015 Best of the Best list, saying this:

"About as perfect as a novel gets. . ., American Neolithic floored me at a moment when I was least expecting it, and it will undoubtedly be making CCLaP's best-of lists at the end of the year. If you're going to read only one contemporary speculative novel this year, make it this one."

Short stories and other media

Since 1995, Terence Hawkins' work has appeared in Keyhole, Poor Mojo’s Almanac(k), Pindeldyboz, Eclectica, Megaera, and Ape Culture. Hawkins is a frequent contributor to the New Haven Register, and his work has appeared on Connecticut Public Radio.