As an author, Hillmann is the author of the novel The Old Neighborhood (2014),[4][5][6][7] and the nonfiction book Mozos: A Decade Running with the Bulls (2015)[8][9] which was translated and published in Spain as Corriendo con Hemingway (2016).[1][10]
As a storyteller, Hillmann is the creator of the Windy City Story Slam.[15][16] He also created the National Story Slam, in which ten storytellers representing different storytelling series across the country performed at the main stage of the Chicago Tribune Printer's Row Lit Fest.[17][18][19] He has told stories at storytelling series in Philadelphia,[20] Portland,[21] San Francisco,[22] and Boston,[23] and won the Boulder Story Slam in Boulder, Colorado in 2014.[24] He has produced and performed in Story Slam events in London and at the
Edinburgh Fringe Festival,[25][26] has participated in Book Slam, London's literary nightclub,[27] and has told stories on
NPR's The Story and Snap Judgment.[28][29]
Boxing
Hillmann is a 2002
Chicago Golden Gloves boxing champion representing the Windy City Gym and a two time selection for the Chicago Golden Gloves International Traveling Team.[3][7][30] As a boxing journalist, Hillmann was the Chicago correspondent for Fightnews, and is the special boxing contributor for the Chicago Tribune RedEye.[31][32]
On July 9, 2014, a bull named Bravito [47](Spanish for Brave one), gored Hillmann twice in the thigh at the
festival of San Fermín in
Pamplona,[45][46][48] but he returned to bull-running in Pamplona in 2015,[41] and published his memoir, Mozos: A Decade Running with the Bulls.[8] In the summer of 2016 he ran with the bulls more than 200 times in towns throughout Spain.[49][50] He has stated that his favorite running of the bulls is the oldest, in
Cuéllar, a small town about two hours north of Madrid, where hundreds of horsemen guide the bulls 3 miles (5 km) to the town and into the run.[41][42][51]
On July 8, 2017, he was gored by one of the bulls from José Escolar in Pamplona.[52]
Mozos: A Decade Running with the Bulls of Spain. Chicago, Illinois: Curbside Splendor Publishing. 2015.
ISBN978-1-9404-3053-9.
Corriendo con Hemingway: Un Mozo Americano en los San Fermines (in Spanish). Barcelona: Ediciones Península,
Planeta Group. 2016.
ISBN978-8-4994-2521-4; translation of Mozos: A Decade Running with the Bulls of Spain
Hillmann, Bill (2021). The Pueblos: My Quest to Run 101 Bull Runs in the Small Towns of Spain. Chicago, Illinois: Tortoise Books.
ISBN978-1-9489-5417-4.