James Allen Hall (he/they) is a nonbinary, queer author of two books of poems and a book of lyric essays. Their most recent book, Romantic Comedy, won the 2020 Levis Prize selected by Diane Seuss and was published by Four Way Books in 2023. Their first book of poems is Now You're the Enemy (U of Arkansas Press, 2008). They are also the author of a book of lyric personal essays: I Liked You Better Before I Knew You So Well, selected by Chris Kraus for the Essay Collection Award and published by Cleveland State University Poetry Center Press (2017). They’ve won awards from the Lambda Literary Foundation, the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, the Texas Institute of Letters, the Fellowship of Southern Writers, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the National Endowment of the Arts (in 2025 and 2011, both in poetry). In 2024, James was the Paul Otremba Returning Fellow at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. Their poems and essays have appeared widely, including in two editions of Best American Poetry. They direct the Rose O'Neill Literary House at Washington College in Chestertown, MD. James co-hosts, with poet extraordinaire Aaron Smith, Breaking Form: A Podcast of Poetry and Culture. Find it online at https://breakingformpod.buzzsprout.com, or wherever you get your podcasts.

 

Poems

“The Dolls” (Limp Wrist)

"Portrait of My Mother as the Republic of Texas" (first published in Rhino).

"The Enemy"(first published in Boston Review)

"Portrait of My Lover as Man in Polyester Suit (1980)" (first published in Boston Review)

"Portrait of My Lover Singing in Traffic" (first published in TriQuarterly)

Tinderbox Poetry Journal: "An American Porn Star Contemplates the Divine"

"A Fact Which Occurred in America" (with commentary; from Structure and Style)

CNF

Alaska Quarterly Review: "Be Destroyed"

Cutbank: "Prophecy"

Poetry Society of America: "Demolition" (criticism)

Inter-

Views

Readings

AWP Los Angeles 2025 tentative.