hillegonds

In And You Will Call It Fate, Timothy J. Hillegonds explores an eight-year relationship with Sean Dempsey, a charismatic yet volatile former NFL player turned entrepreneur who profoundly reshaped the trajectory of Hillegonds’s life. Set against the backdrop of Chicago’s financial district, the memoir follows Hillegonds--a high school dropout, struggling addict, and estranged father--as he unexpectedly enters the high-stakes world of finance under Dempsey’s intense mentorship.

A troubling undercurrent of manipulation and control soon belies Dempsey’s initially supportive mentorship. As he considers the devastating two-year lawsuit through which he broke free, Hillegonds thoughtfully explores the complicated bonds formed when gratitude intersects with obligation, and harm with healing. Part workplace memoir and part nuanced meditation on masculinity, power, and redemption, Hillegonds’s tightly crafted narrative asks the reader to consider a difficult question: How does one reconcile the debts owed to those who simultaneously save and harm us?

Timothy J. Hillegonds is the author of The Distance Between: A Memoir (Nebraska, 2019). His work has appeared in publications such as The Guardian, The Daily Beast, Los Angeles Review of Books, and Salon.com. He serves as a contributing editor for Slag Glass City, a digital journal of the urban essay arts. Hillegonds lives, works, and writes in Chicago.