A Life in Letters

About the Author

Author of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. Retired professor of English. Founder of Silver Current Press.

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Biography

Published over 300 times

James Mulhern is a Philadelphia-based novelist, poet, essayist, and retired professor of English who writes about families, memory, faith, and the things people keep from one another. He has been published over 300 times in literary magazines, journals, and anthologies in the United States and around the world. Editors on five continents have published his work, in magazines from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Ireland to Germany, India, South Africa, Singapore, Japan, and Australia. His novels and short story collections—among them Give Them Unquiet Dreams, Molly Bonamici, A Prayer for Home, and Assumptions and Other Stories—have earned favorable critiques from Kirkus Reviews, including a starred review.

In 2015, Mulhern was awarded a fully funded Creative Writing Fellowship to the University of Oxford’s Exeter College on the strength of his writing, and his work earned a grade of First Class. That same year, a story of his was shortlisted for the Fish Short Story Prize. In 2017, his story “Blindfolded” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He has been shortlisted for the Aesthetica Creative Writing Award for poetry, nominated for Best of the Net, and named a Finalist for the Tuscany Prize in Catholic Fiction for his story “Assumptions.” Two of his stories received Honorable Mentions for the Short Story America Prize, and two of his novels were Finalists—one a Red Ribbon Winner—for the United Kingdom’s Wishing Shelf Book Awards.

His novel Give Them Unquiet Dreams won a 2019 Readers’ Favorite Bronze Medal, is a Notable Best Book of 2019, and was named one of the Best Books of 2019 by Kirkus Reviews, which awarded it a starred review. His poetry collection Crossings: Selected Poems was published by Silver Current Press in August 2026. Forthcoming titles include The Collected Stories and Poems, the first gathering of his fiction and poetry into a single volume; the story collection The Weight of Small Mercies; the second edition of his textbook How to Analyze Literature; and a separately planned illustrated edition of Crossings.

He is the founder of Silver Current Press, a Philadelphia imprint devoted to literary fiction, poetry, and the art of the well-made book. After thirty-five years teaching English and writing in colleges, secondary schools, and vocational centers across Massachusetts and Florida, he writes and publishes full time.

Mulhern’s essays take up craft, the images that keep returning in his work, and what writing has to do with belief.

For reviews, awards, nominations, and a fuller publication history, see Reviews & Recognition.

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Life & Background

From Boston to Oxford to Philadelphia

Painting in the style of Edward Hopper of Boston triple-decker houses on a quiet tree-lined street at dusk. A lone man walks away down the far sidewalk.
A Boston Street, Evening · after Edward Hopper

James Mulhern was raised in a Boston Irish Catholic family whose rhythms—church bells, the rosary, the radio in the kitchen, the things nobody said out loud—run all through his fiction. The 1970s Boston of Give Them Unquiet Dreams is not a tourist’s Boston. It is the working-class city he grew up in, tree-lined streets where the past was never far off.

Painting in the style of Edward Hopper of a sunlit 1970s kitchen where five people gather around a white tablecloth: a grandmother at the stove, a young man in a flat cap with his hand on a seated boy’s shoulder, a white-haired grandmother pouring tea, and a woman in a trench coat leaning in the doorway
Full Houseafter Edward Hopper
Painting in the style of Edward Hopper of a large shingled house with a deep, empty front porch under maples and oaks, low October sun on its gable and one upstairs window lit. A man walks alone along the sidewalk.
Plenty of Roomafter Edward Hopper
Painting in the style of Edward Hopper of a brick Gothic Revival church with limestone trim, a square pinnacled tower and a great traceried window, its doors closed in late autumn sun. A man walks alone along the sidewalk past the lawn.
Interior Castleafter Edward Hopper
Painting in the style of Edward Hopper of Boston Latin School in the Fenway on an October afternoon, its columned yellow-brick facade and cupola behind autumn trees. A man walks up the path toward the entrance.
Boston Latin School, Octoberafter Edward Hopper
Painting in the style of Edward Hopper of Boston University seen across the Charles River at evening, Marsh Chapel’s tower above the water and an empty riverside bench. A man walks alone along the river path.
Boston University from the Charlesafter Edward Hopper
Painting in the style of Edward Hopper of Boston Common at winter dusk, a lamplit snowy path toward the theater-district buildings of Emerson College, the State House dome beyond. A man walks alone along the lamplit path.
Boston Common, toward Emersonafter Edward Hopper

At Emerson College he worked for Ploughshares, and he served as an editor at publishing houses in Boston, New York City, and Western Massachusetts. In 1988 he began thirty-five years of teaching, much of it as a professor, in colleges, secondary schools, and vocational centers across Massachusetts and Florida. He worked principally with inner-city students, many of them children of immigrants and immigrants themselves. In time their lives and voices entered his fiction as deeply as his Irish-Catholic inheritance had.

“As a teacher of American literature,” he has written, “I want my students to use the literature as a way to make connections and find meaning. Explore the circumference of your life. Write about your experience. Celebrate yourself.” The literature he taught—Whitman, Dickinson, Emerson, Thoreau, Hughes, O’Connor, Joyce—is the same literature that informs his prose: a faith that the well-made sentence is a moral instrument, that the right line of poetry can hold a life.

Painting in the style of Edward Hopper of the front quadrangle of Exeter College, Oxford, on a summer evening, honey-colored stone, the chapel spire and a lamplit doorway. A man walks alone along the path beside the lawn.
Exeter College, Oxfordafter Edward Hopper

That same Oxford fellowship—awarded in 2015—came near the close of his teaching years. He now makes his permanent home in Philadelphia—a city he has come to love for its history, its museums, its green space, and, most of all, its character. Having spent time in cities around the world, he finds a particular gratitude in living among Philadelphians, whose everyday warmth keeps faith with the city’s old name. In Philadelphia he founded Silver Current Press, a press for literary fiction, poetry, and books on writing—his own, and work by other writers he wants more people to read.

Painting in the style of Edward Hopper of a brown clapboard house with deep blue trim beside white birches and tall pines, blue hills on the horizon, a lamp burning upstairs in bright morning light. A man walks along the far side of the road.
Daylight Savingafter Edward Hopper
Painting in the style of Edward Hopper of a square brick Federal house with a white cupola and dark green shutters behind a tall hedge and a closed white gate, one upstairs window faintly lit. A man walks alone along the sidewalk past the fence.
Not Receivingafter Edward Hopper
Painting in the style of Edward Hopper of a two-story log home with a green roof and stone chimney in blazing autumn color, a yellow Labrador and a chocolate Labrador playing in the fallen leaves. A man walks alone across the yard.
Yard Workafter Edward Hopper
Painting in the style of Edward Hopper of a log-walled room at night, a low fire in a stone fireplace and an empty armchair with a book face down, a yellow Labrador and a chocolate Labrador asleep together on a braided rug
After Yard Workafter Edward Hopper
Painting in the style of Edward Hopper of a three-story brick walk-up and a row of brownstones with empty iron-railed stoops on a tree-lined block, low evening light raking along the facades. A man walks alone along the sidewalk.
Neighborhood Watchafter Edward Hopper
Painting in the style of Edward Hopper of a cream-colored building with a bay window above a steep street that falls away toward a distant city, fog resting on the far ridge in clear afternoon light. A man walks downhill toward the city.
Clear for Nowafter Edward Hopper
Painting in the style of Edward Hopper of a low stucco ranch house with a carport under royal palms in strong late-afternoon sun, a single towering cloud in a blue sky. A man in a straw hat walks past the house.
Partly Cloudyafter Edward Hopper

Now retired from teaching, he divides his days between writing, editing, and the work of Silver Current Press—a small literary press for fiction, poetry, and books on writing. He still mentors writers, teaches the occasional seminar, and rereads the writers he taught for thirty-five years. The sentences continue.

Read Sample Writing

Painting in the style of Edward Hopper of a writer at his desk, gazing out over the Philadelphia skyline at dusk
The Writer at His Desk, Evening · after Edward Hopper

Awards & Distinctions

Recognition

2019

Kirkus Best Book

For Give Them Unquiet Dreams—a starred review and one of the Best Books of 2019.

★

Kirkus Starred Review

Awarded by Kirkus Reviews. “A luminous, beautifully told fairy tale grounded in history and elevated by spirit.”

2017

Pushcart Prize Nominee

Nominated for the story “Blindfolded.”

2015

Oxford University Fellowship

Fully Funded

Awarded a Creative Writing Fellowship to the University of Oxford’s Exeter College on the strength of his writing. His work earned a grade of First Class.

2020

Aesthetica Creative Writing Award

Shortlisted for the United Kingdom’s Aesthetica Creative Writing Award for poetry (published in the Creative Writing Anthology 2021).

2025

Best of the Net Nomination

Nominated for the Best of the Net Anthology in poetry, for “Honeymoon,” by Sparks of Calliope.

2015

Fish Short Story Prize

Shortlisted for the international Fish Short Story Prize, for “A Nun’s Arse”—one of 143 stories chosen from 1,400 entries.

2015

Short Story America Prize

Two Honorable Mentions, including A Prayer for Home.

2013

Tuscany Prize Finalist

Finalist for the Tuscany Prize in Catholic Fiction, for the story “Assumptions.”

UK

Wishing Shelf Book Awards

Two novels named Finalists, with a Red Ribbon Winner / highly recommended distinction.

2019

Readers’ Favorite Bronze Medal

A 2019 Bronze Medal from the Readers’ Favorite Book Awards for Give Them Unquiet Dreams, and five-star reviews for three of his books.

2019

Notable Best Book Award

Awarded to Give Them Unquiet Dreams as a Notable Best Book of 2019.

See the Full Reviews & Recognition →

In the Classroom

Teaching the craft

Thirty-five years teaching writers in colleges, secondary schools, and vocational centers across Massachusetts and Florida.

  • The Art of Telling

    A study of narrative craft—voice, point of view, scene construction, and how meaning is built in the modern short story.

  • Writing Workshop

    An advanced seminar in fiction and poetry. Close reading, close revision, and the cultivation of a writer’s working life.

  • Literature Surveys

    Courses in modern and contemporary literature—exploring how writers of the past century shaped the sentences we still write today.

  • Independent Mentorship

    One-on-one work with writers preparing manuscripts, applying to MFA programs, or sending work to journals and contests.

Painting in the style of Edward Hopper of an elderly grandmother with short, rounded gray curls, in a long teal dress with a pale floral print, seated in a green armchair by a lace-curtained window in late-afternoon light, gazing across the room at a gilt-framed painting of the Blessed Mother.
The Afternoon Chairafter Edward Hopper

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