San Diego Reader

Michael Hemmingson

Photo of Michael Hemmingson

Michael Hemmingson covers local homicides, bands, art, culture, and social issues for the Reader. He also publishes novels, short story collections, literary criticism, and edited anthologies, such as Expelled from Eden: A William T. Vollmann Reader, and The Mammoth Book of Legal Thrillers. His novel, The Rose of Heaven, set in Temecula, c. 1911, won the first San Diego Book Awards Association’s Novel-in-Progress Grant in 2000. The SDBAA also awarded him Best Published Novel of 2002 for Wild Turkey, a noir thriller that takes place in North Park and Las Vegas. His latest book is set for release in summer 2008: In the Background Is a Walled City, set in San Diego and Santa’s Castle in the North Pole.


Hemmingson is also an ethnographer, publishing both empirical and theoretical work in qualitative inquiry under the aegis of sociology, communications, and anthropology, with forthcoming books iBLOGGER: Symbolic Interaction, Digital Ethnography, and the Electronic Double in the Blogosphere and Auto/Ethnographies: Sex, Death and Independent Filmmaking in the Eighth Moment of Qualitative Inquiry. He is currently finishing two ethnographic studies of Tijuana, Zona Norte and Shadow Lives, and a social issues study of homelessness, Now I Know What Happened to Me.


His first feature film, The Watermelon, will be released in fall 2008.

Recent Stories

Eclectic Electric
Eclectic Electric

Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2008
Matt Resovich is one of those musicians who keeps busy and often commits to many projects at a time. He’s ...

Jet-Set 'J
Jet-Set 'J

Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2008
When asked about her stage name, DJ Miss Lisa says, “I used to be a go-go dancer, and when I ...

Friends Like These
Friends Like These

Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2008
The Modlins wear suits and skinny ties and play what they call “oldies-influenced indie-pop.” That may lead you to assume ...

You Blog, You’re Out
You Blog, You’re Out

Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2008
Solana Beach, summer 2002. A job interview. “So you like to post on the Internet a lot,” said the human ...

Greetings from Tijuana
Greetings from Tijuana

Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2008
The End of the World A mile east of the Tijuana International Airport is an area police call El Fin ...

Donkeys in the Gig Rig
Donkeys in the Gig Rig

Wednesday, July 16, 2008
A brief mention in the May issue of Spin provided San Diego band the Donkeys with some national exposure, but ...

I Was Hoping It Would Come to Fists
I Was Hoping It Would Come to Fists

Wednesday, June 25, 2008
March 11, 2008 — It’s past noon at the Round Table Pizza in the Price Center at UCSD, and there ...

Time to Kill
Time to Kill

Wednesday, June 11, 2008
“I know it sounds lame, but I actually did come down here [to San Diego] seven years ago to follow ...

When the Tattooed Lady Sings
When the Tattooed Lady Sings

Wednesday, April 30, 2008
American Idol contestant and San Diegan Carly Smithson was eliminated from the show last week. Yet, sales of her failed ...

Haters
Haters

Wednesday, April 30, 2008
“Things are bad enough with the cops and the drug gangs,” a Tijuana emo fan says while drinking beers with ...

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