Beauty Bides Its Time
Just keep on
We spent the holidays down south, tracing the route of the river from Memphis to New Orleans. Liz and I lived for two years in the Mississippi Delta, two years that still shake and spark in our bones, and the kids said it was high time we took them. It’s true, you gotta back those stories up.
That trip, the glory and the stories—ours, our children’s as they discovered this most American of places, everything from the river to the music to the broken-hearted and courage-making history (and, Lord, don’t even get me started on the sweet tea and catfish sandwiches)—were a buoy, a light, a glory at the end of a hard year.
And now these first weeks of the new year have, across the country, been again hard and broken-hearted.
Well, I don’t know what else to do but keep at it. Keep teaching, learning, noticing. Keep making calls, keep showing up. Keep holding loved ones close. Keep being good neighbors. Before you know it, they’ll be up. The crocuses and daffodils and all the beauties biding their time.
Every Sky at Home - Cover Reveal!
My forthcoming collection of essays, Every Sky at Home, has a cover and has been slowly collecting good words out there in world! You can preorder now!!
It’s the musicality of Wilkins’s prose that first takes your breath. Words chosen as instrument, every line a chord. His melodies transporting you into the very heart of what it means to be human. But what alters you forever is his honesty — the rarity of it. Kindness without sentimentality. Selfishness paired with gentleness. Loyalty, pity, compassion, anger, disappointment, timidity, celebration – because they are aspects of us all. His people, whether you meet them in his memoirs, novels, or poetry, remain with you, become as lasting and foundational and as cherished as family. Joe Wilkins owns one of the most affecting and necessary voices in American letters. – Mark Spragg, author of Where Rivers Change Direction and An Unfinished Life
To remember the ‘real things’ — the landscapes that shape us, the loves and losses that make us who we are — read Joe Wilkins. To see the American West as it is, read Joe Wilkins. – Michelle Nijhuis, author of Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction
Pastoral, 1994 Is a Finalist for the Oregon Book Award!
Sure been a good run here in Oregon. When We Were Birds was a finalist (and won!) in 2017; Thieve was a finalist in 2021; and now my latest, Pastoral, 1994, is once again a finalist for the Oregon Book Award. Particularly sweet to share this finalist nod with poet-friends Lisa Wells and Garrett Hongo.
New Work in the World
Been awhile since I shared new work here in the newsletter. Always a joy to be part of the ongoing, particular conversations that are literary magazines.
“Geomorphology of the Upper Great Plains” at Poetry Daily
“Ancestors” in Orion Magazine
“And Should We Stand with Arms Outstretched for a Refrain” in Out There Outdoors
“Bible Creek Fire” in Arrowsmith Review
“Certainty Is Another Word for Despair” at Traverse
“Shimmer” in The Sun
Upcoming Events
I’ve got a couple of readings coming up in the next few months—love to see you there—and look for online classes on the events tab at my website. Come spend some time writing with me!
Salem Poetry Project: A Reading with Joe Wilkins
February 12, 2026 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm, Marco Polo Global Restaurant
Lewis and Clark College Visiting Writers Series Presents: Joe Wilkins
February 24, 2026 at 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm, Lewis and Clark College
Celebrating 25 Years of the Viebranz Professorship
March 12, 2026 at 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm ET, St. Lawrence University
April 8, 2026 – April 11, 2026 Gunnison, Colorado
April 17, 2026 – April 19, 2026 Spokane, WA
Excited for your book of essays!
Great stuff, Joe, and congrats on everything. I was happy to sign the next page to yours in John Miller's guest apartment log book last week in Roscoe; that entire River Arts & Books situation is wonderful, isn't it?