James B. WellsSo proud of the Bluegrass Writers Studio (BGWS) MFA Program I graduated from this summer. https://stories.eku.edu/programs/bluegrass-writers-studio-awarded-best-low-residency-program-2022?fbclid=IwAR1B1qSqoiFGP-cxNNQ1F3W9W29KoWa6VLn9_KfkgGZhOEbcdqMthQIFat8
Fifty-seven years ago today, my father lost his life in Vietnam. During a televised broadcast of my father’s funeral, local WSB-TV news anchor Tom Brokaw told the world what the US government had told the media and my family: That my father “was killed when Communist guerrillas shot down a plane over South Vietnam.” Over […]
After doing some research at Rush Township Cemetery in southern Ohio, I attended another Woodsongs Artist Picnic gathering outside Portsmouth. While communing with several local talented artists, I read an essay based on what I learned that morning at the cemetery.
On what would have been my mother’s 95th birthday, today I can’t help but think she played a pivotal role in me wanting to be a writer and write an investigative memoir about her husband’s still classified death in Vietnam. My love of words started at an early age when she surrounded my siblings and […]
Today I attended what I hope is the first of many Woodsongs Artist Gatherings at the beautiful log home and farm of the multi-talented Michael Jonathon. There, we communed with two dozen other artists through our own art. I look forward to attending more of these in the future throughout the country.
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.
James B. Wells