James B. Wells
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.
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.
James B. Wells