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.
Now that my MFA degree is complete, I plan to get even more involved in the art and literary scene in Lexington, known as the “Athens of the West” since its founding in 1782. I got a good start tonight by reading an excerpt from my in-progress book at an open-mic at our city’s central […]
Although I graduated this spring with my MFA in Creative Writing, I didn’t finish all my requirements until I defended my thesis at this summer’s Bluegrass Writers Studio (BGWS), which ended this past weekend. I can’t say enough good things about the BGWS and its director Bob Johnson, who was also my thesis chair. Bob […]
My father was born on June 23, 1926. My mother died four days after his birthday, on June 27, 2008. Since she was always late for just about everything, my siblings and I laughed at the thought of our father not being surprised when she showed finally showed up for his birthday. “Jack Because Betty” […]
I think of my father this Father’s Day in the opening and closing chapters of my thesis/book, which I formally finish next month at the Eastern Kentucky University’s Bluegrass Writers Studio Summer Residency. The book begins and ends with him where he liked to sit in an Air America C-45 Twin Beech aircraft, in the […]
This Memorial Day, I think of my father and others like him whose sacrifices still impact us. I like to believe it is their way of letting us know they are still with us. In my book, I write of an event where a photograph brought us together again.
This past Friday, I graduated with my MFA in Creative Writing from Eastern Kentucky University’s Bluegrass Writers Studio. Although I received my Ph.D. in Research around thirty years ago, this degree has been more challenging for several different reasons. Over three decades of research and ten years of writing have been involved in writing this […]
I tell people I’ll never be the writer worthy of telling the fascinating story behind my odyssey to find the truth behind my father’s mysterious and still classified death in Vietnam…but I’m trying! I recently found out I’m a finalist in the Bluegrass Writers Studio Emerging Writers Award. Given the judging is done by an […]
At the last BlueGrass Writers Studio open-mic of the semester, I read an excerpt from my book about the Air American Reunion I attended in 2017. What I learned there corroborated my archival and field research supporting my theory about what really happened on my father’s last flight.
Today, another milestone in my odyssey has been completed. I’ve submitted my thesis, an investigative personal narrative I’ve been writing for the last decade, to my MFA in Creative Writing committee at Eastern Kentucky University’s Bluegrass Writers Studio. Although I won’t officially graduate till I defend this summer, there’s no time for a well-deserved break […]
At last night’s Bluegrass Writers Studio virtual open-mic, I read an excerpt from my book describing an amazing discovery I made at the Air America Archives. My reading starts at the 45:13 time mark. https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=search&v=482773933397497
James B. Wells