Bull Runs, Broken Noses & By-Lines: The Wild Life of Chicago’s Bill Hillmann

Bill Hillmann doesn’t just tell stories—he lives them like a man sprinting down a narrow street in Pamplona with a half-ton of fury on his heels. The acclaimed Chicago author, journalist, professor, speaker, and former Golden Gloves boxer has spent his life chasing meaning in the chaos—whether in the ring, the classroom, or the dusty roads of Spain.

Born and raised in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood, Hillmann’s journey has been anything but ordinary. His newest book, White Flight (Tortoise Books, September 2, 2025), digs deep into the wounds and reckonings of a mixed-race family moving from the city to the suburbs—a shift that opened new doors but came with its own ghosts. It’s an unflinching exploration of race, identity, and survival told through the lens of brutal honesty and heartbreaking tenderness.

“The story is personal,” Hillmann says. “It’s my family. It’s Chicago. It’s about what happens when you leave one world behind and realize it never really leaves you.”

The novel blurs the line between fiction and memoir, rooted in Hillmann’s own teenage years—a time marked by tragedy and transformation. Among the darkness came light: acceptance into the legendary St. Joseph’s High School, where a Christian Brother would introduce him to boxing, and an opportunity to study physics at FermiLab in Batavia, Illinois, where he first learned how to channel chaos into purpose.

Before long, Hillmann’s fists and his words became twin weapons. He punched his way to a Chicago Golden Gloves title, ran with bulls in Spain, and wrote books that landed him in the pages of VICE, NPR, CNN, and The Chicago Tribune. But through it all, it’s his hometown that remains his grounding force—a city that raised him, broke him, and inspired him to create.

Today, as a professor of English and Communications at East-West University in Chicago, Hillmann has traded the boxing ring for the classroom, helping a new generation find their voices through storytelling. He even founded the National College Story Slam, a nationwide competition where students share five-minute personal stories—a nod to his belief that everyone has a story worth telling.

White Flight isn’t just Hillmann’s most personal work yet—it’s his most necessary. A bruising, poetic reminder that where you come from never leaves your bloodstream, no matter how far you run.

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