Joe Wilkins is the author of a novel, Fall Back Down When I Die, praised as “remarkable and unforgettable” in a starred review at Booklist. A finalist for the First Novel Award from the Center for Fiction and the Pacific Northwest Book Award, Fall Back Down When I Die won the 2020 High Plains Book Award. Wilkins is also the author of a memoir, The Mountain and the Fathers, winner of a 2014 GLCA New Writers Award, and four collections of poetry, including Thieve and When We Were Birds, winner of the Oregon Book Award. Born and raised in eastern Montana, Wilkins lives with his family in the foothills of the Coast Range of Oregon, where he directs the creative writing program at Linfield University.

Website: http://joewilkins.org/

Publications

• The Mountain and the Fathers: Growing up on the Big Dry, a Memoir , Counterpoint Press (March 1, 2012)
• Notes from the Journey Westward, Poems , White Pine Press (October 1, 2012)
• Killing the Murnion Dogs, Poems , Black Lawrence Press (October 15, 2011)
• When We Were Birds, Poems , University of Arkansas Press (March 2016)
• Fall Back Down When I Die, a Novel , Little, Brown, and Company (March 1, 2019)
• Thieve , Lynx House Press (January 1, 2020)

Awards

• Finalist for the National Magazine Award in the Essay Category(2010)
• Pen Center USA in Journalism Finalist(2010)
• Boyden Wilderness Writing Residency(2013)
• Orion Book Award Finalist(2013)
• GLCA New Writers Award in Nonfiction(2014)
• Pushcart Prize(2016)
• Oregon Book Award in Poetry(2017)
• First Novel Award from the Center For Fiction, Finalist(2019)
• Pacific Northwest Bookseller's Award, Finalist(2019)
• High Plains Book Award in Fiction(2020)
• Oregon Book Award in Poetry, Finalist(2021)
• Blue Lynx Prize(2018)

Employment

• Director of Creative Writing at Waldorf College (August 2007 - April 2013)
• Director of Creative Writing at Linfield University (July 2013 - )

Degrees

• Master of Fine Arts in Poetry from University of Idaho (May 2007)

Genres of Interest

Fiction, Creative nonfiction, Poetry