Jim Minick is the author or editor of eight books, including “The Intimacy of Spoons” (Semi-Finalist for the 2025 North American Poetry Book Award), Without Warning: The Tornado of Udall, Kansas (Kansas Notable Book Award, 2023, nonfiction), Fire Is Your Water, (Finalist for the Library of Virginia Fiction Award, 2017), and The Blueberry Years: A Memoir of Farm and Family (Winner of the Southern Book of the Year from SIBA, 2010). His work has appeared in the New York Times, Oxford American, Orion, Shenandoah, Appalachian Journal, Wind, and The Sun, and his poem “I Dream a Bean” was picked by Claudia Emerson for permanent display at the Tysons Corner/Metrorail Station. Minick’s honors include the Thomas and Lillie Chaffin Award, the Jean Ritchie Fellowship, the Appalachian Writer in Residence for On the Same Page Festival, and the Fred Chappell Fellowship at UNC-Greensboro. Minick has also won awards from the Southern Independent Booksellers Association, Southern Environmental Law Center, The Virginia College Bookstore Association, Appalachian Writers Association, Radford University, and elsewhere. He’s garnered grants from the Virginia Commission for the Arts, the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, Augusta University, Georgia Humanities Council, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. He lives in the mountains of Virginia.
Shorter Version:
Jim Minick is the author or editor of eight books, including “The Intimacy of Spoons” (poetry), Without Warning: The Tornado of Udall, Kansas (nonfiction), Fire Is Your Water, (novel), and The Blueberry Years: A Memoir of Farm and Family (Winner of the Southern Book of the Year). His work has appeared in the New York Times, Oxford American, Orion, Shenandoah, Appalachian Journal, Wind, and The Sun. Minick’s honors include the Chaffin Award, the Jean Ritchie Fellowship, and the Fred Chappell Fellowship at UNC-Greensboro. He lives in the mountains of Virginia.
