more about djh
DJ Hills (they/them) is a cross-genre writer for the page, stage, and screen.
A queer and genderqueer artist, DJ seeks to create and collaborate on art that works intentionally and explicitly to diversify the voices and experiences audiences and readers encounter.
DJ's play TRUNK BRIEF JOCK THONG was shortlisted for the 2023 Yale Drama Series. Their plays have been developed and/or produced most recently at Carnegie Mellon University (Adult Things), University of California Los Angeles (I SWEAR TO GOD), Single Carrot Theatre (we broke up.), and The Kennedy Center (Juniper Jones and the Rocket She Built). Their short plays …in daylight and big and small were part of Theater Masters TAKE TEN 2022 and 2023, respectively, and subsequently published by Concord Theatricals.
Other writing appears most recently in Lunch Ticket, The Worcester Review, and Poetry Online. Their poetry chapbook Leaving Earth was published by Split Rock Press in Fall 2022.
DJ received the Kratz Fellowship in Creative Writing from Goucher College, allowing them to live briefly in New Orleans where they wrote a cycle of poems inspired by the lives and culture of the Gulf Coast. In 2019, DJ was named a fellow for the Horticulture Playwrights Workshop, for which they wrote a play exploring the intersections of queerness, rural America, and the trauma of place. They have been twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize, for both poetry and prose, and their poem "Leaving Earth" was nominated for 2023 Best of the Net.
DJ was proudly born and raised in the shadow of the Appalachians. They are currently pursuing their MFA in Playwriting at UCLA.

photo credit: Andrew Brandveen