Ryan D. Hall

Words and stories have always been my best friends, and they have been ever since I was two.

On top of "Pokey Little Puppy" and "The Little Engine That Could", my Mom would read the newspaper and news magazines to me.

One day when I was two, something just clicked. We were reading a news magazine story about President Carter...when I started reading the story for myself.

I was two!

When I was ten, my Grandfather had me so hooked on a story about irrigation equipment and lightning bugs, that I just had to turn it into something for him to read.

"Monkeytown" became my first ever short story. And I was hooked.

My family and literary roots are distinctly Southern. I once got to ask Harper Lee a question at a talk she gave in 1996. Winston Groom was the single greatest author-reader I have ever heard.

I’m mostly drawn to writing by ear - even in my prose, playwrights are my greatest influences. Paddy Chayefsky, David Mamet, and Aaron Sorkin use words and language like musical weapons.