Jim Minick is the author or editor of seven books, including the novel Fire Is Your Water, winner of the Appalachian Book of the Year Award, and The Blueberry Years: A Memoir of Farm and Family, winner of the Best Nonfiction Book of the Year Award from the Southern Independent Booksellers Association. He's also written two books of poetry, Her Secret Song and Burning Heaven, a collection of essays, Finding a Clear Path, and edited All There Is to Keep by Rita Riddle. His latest, Without Warning: The Tornado of Udall, Kansas, is a nonfiction work forthcoming from the University of Nebraska Press in 2023. Minick's honors include the Jean Ritchie Fellowship in Appalachian Writing and the Fred Chappell Fellowship at UNC-Greensboro. He has also won awards from the Southern Environmental Law Center, The Virginia College Bookstore Association, Appalachian Writers Association, Radford University, and elsewhere. His poem "I Dream a Bean" was picked by Claudia Emerson for permanent display at the Tysons Corner Metrorail Station. 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. Minick's work has appeared in many publications including The New York Times, Poets & Writers, Oxford American, Orion, Shenandoah, Conversations with Wendell Berry, Tampa Review, Appalachian Journal, Cutleaf, and The Sun.