James B. WellsJAMES B. WELLS is a retired criminology and criminal justice professor in the School of Justice Studies in the College of Justice, Safety, and Military Science at Eastern Kentucky University, and is the recipient of the 2025 Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences John Howard Award, an award given intermittently, upon significant demand, to recognize an individual who has made significant and sustained contributions to the practice of corrections. A former carpenter, soldier, and correctional officer in a super-maximum-security prison and later as a researcher/planner assisting architects in prison design, he has multiple degrees, including an M.S. in Criminal Justice, a Ph.D. in Research, and an MFA in Creative Writing. He’s authored or co-authored over sixty-five books, chapters, articles, and essays, as well as over a hundred and fifty research reports for various local, state, and federal agencies. Recent essays from his research and memoir work appear or are forthcoming in Collateral Journal, About Place Journal, Wild Roof Journal, Military Experience and the Arts, The Wrath-Bearing Tree, Shift, Proud to be: Writing by American Warriors, Trajectory Journal, and From Pen to Page III: More Writings from the Bluegrass Writers Coalition.
His investigative memoir about his father's still CIA-classified death in Vietnam in 1965, titled Because: A CIA Coverup and a Son’s Odyssey to Find the Father He Never Knew, will be launched on Father's Day weekend, 2025. Links to publications, presentations, trailers, social media, blog, and other information can be found at https://jamesbwells.com. James enjoys spending much of his leisure time with his spouse on their Lexington, Kentucky farm located on the palisades of the Kentucky River, where he is an organic gardener and beekeeper.
Another milestone is in the making! My publisher informed me I would have most of November to proof the interior galley of my investigative memoir BECAUSE: A CIA Coverup and a Son’s Odyssey to Find the Father He Never Knew. I received it in my inbox this afternoon. After 33 years of research and writing, the […]
I was excited to find in the mail yesterday a story that emerged by chance and was recently published by Missouri Humanities and Greentower Press’s journal, Proud to Be: Writing by American Warriors, Volume 13. It’s an essay backed up by field research and archival research at the National Archives in College Park, MD, describing […]
I find it interesting that in my senior years, because of my academic training as a researcher, I have a strong desire to research, uncover, understand, and write about the lives and careers of my family members who came before me. Furthermore, as a writer, I feel a sense of responsibility to do so, as […]
This was made public today. My publisher says “It’s rare for publishers to use personal photos on a memoir cover unless the subject is a celebrity…but we need to make an exception this time.” Thank you Milspeak Books, Tracy Crow, and Cover Designer Michelle Bradford Art.
As readers will come to find out as early as June 15, Father’s Day, 2025, one of the endorsers of my investigative memoir about your life and death beautifully said it is “an affecting, haunting, and beautiful testament to the hole a man has left in the universe.” “How true,” I think this morning as I […]
It’s time to celebrate another completed milestone. My investigative memoir “Because: A CIA Coverup and a Son’s Odyssey to Find the Father He Never Knew” has entered production at Milspeak Books. The copy edits have been incorporated, the manuscript has been proofed, and high-resolution photographs and images have been provided to the publisher. The next milestone […]
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if those whose lives were cut short or spoiled could somehow still live the life that God intended and find peace and contentment (I actually address this in my book that will be released Father’s Day 2025)? I can’t help but believe that the life that God intended my parents to […]
One of the best things about getting old is being able to hang on to some of the fondest memories of your youth. At last night’s Poetry at the Table open-mic at the Kenwick Table, I told a story about how a poem about my first car (which I still have) got to be written […]
I’ve already started planning the details of a book tour after releasing my investigative memoir, Because: A CIA Coverup and a Son’s Odyssey to Find the Father He Never Knew, on June 15 (Father’s Day), 2025. Brenda and I plan to travel in a small RV from Florida to Maine next summer and fall. In each […]
Another milestone has been reached! What an incredible journey I have been on, which started when I found my father’s letters 33 years ago. I’ve incorporated the edits suggested by my copy editor at Milspeak Books, Margaret MacInnis. I am now proofreading my copyedited manuscript Because: A CIA Coverup and a Son’s Odyssey to Find the […]
James B. Wells