Creatively Investigating the Most Interesting Lives, Subjects
Collins Hemingway is the author of ten books, including a new biography of a black man in America and a book of literary criticism on Jane Austen. He is recognized for his ability to make challenging concepts accessible to laypersons and compelling to experts. His biography of a black classmate from high school illustrates contemporary minority life in the US with all its difficulties and dangers. He is a respected authority on Jane Austen’s writing and the Regency period in which she lived. His fiction captures who she is as a person; his nonfiction captures who she is as a writer. His essays and lectures have challenged or expanded many accepted views on the British author. His other nonfiction books, collaborative efforts with industry thought leaders, are detailed below.
A graduate of the University of Arkansas, Phi Beta Kappa, Hemingway has a master’s degree in English literature from the University of Oregon, including a concentration on eighteenth-century literature. His career has combined the humanities with technology, and intellectual analysis with operational skills.
Running Against the Wind: A Black Arkansan’s Pursuit of His Dreams (2025) tells the story of William R. Brooks, a black kid who grew up impoverished in the racially hostile town of Little Rock and eventually lived a prosperous life. But he has also struggled, and sometimes struggles still, as a black man in a predominantly white culture. His experience demonstrates that a black person seeking to pursue happiness in America still requires unusual courage, patience, faith—and luck—to achieve anything close to equality.
Jane Austen and the Creation of Modern Fiction: Six Novels in “a Style Entirely New” investigates Austen’s development as a writer and shows how her innovations as a prose stylist set the course for modern fiction.
The Marriage of Miss Jane Austen trilogy of literary fiction, based on Austen’s life, demonstrates how a woman of her intelligence and passion would have handled all the things that Regency life could throw at a woman.
Collins is a regular speaker at the annual general meetings of the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) and was JASNA’s Traveling Lecturer for the West Region, 2020-22. He was the first international Zoom lecturer for the Jane Austen Society of Australia, in 2022. He has published in the academic journals of JASNA and the Jane Austen Society of Australia and is a regular contributor to the magazine Jane Austen’s Regency World. He is board secretary of the North American Friends of Chawton House.
Hemingway lives in Central Oregon with his wife, Wendy. He supports the Oregon Community Foundation, the Deschutes Land Trust, and other civic organizations providing social services in Central Oregon.
Biographies
Running Against the Wind: A Black Arkansan’s Pursuit of His Dreams. Little Rock, Ark.: Rose Publishing Company, 2025. Print and digital.
Austen Books
Jane Austen and the Creation of Modern Fiction: Six Novels in “a Style Entirely New.” Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland and Company, 2024. Print and digital.
The Marriage of Miss Jane Austen: A Trilogy, 2015-2017. Historical fiction based on the life of the author. Print and digital.
General Nonfiction
Gates, Bill and Collins Hemingway. Business @ the Speed of Thought. New York: Warner Books, 1999. Print and digital.
Rubinfeld, Arthur and Collins Hemingway. Built for Growth: Expanding Your Business Around the Corner or Across the World. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Wharton School Publishing, 2005. Print.
Baker, Dan, Cathy Greenberg and Collins Hemingway. What Happy Companies Know: How the New Science of Happiness Can Change Your Company for the Better. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006. Print and digital.
Marcus, Robert and Collins Hemingway. The Fifth Wave: A Strategic Vision for Mobile Internet Innovation, Investment and Return, 2012. Print and digital.
Breznitz, Shlomo and Collins Hemingway. Maximum Brainpower: Challenging the Brain for Health and Wisdom. New York: Ballantine Books, 2012. Print and digital.
For more details on each book, see the separate Books menu.