Jim Reese is an associate professor of English and director of the Great Plains Writers' Tour at Mount Marty University in Yankton, South Dakota. He spent fourteen years in residency for the National Endowment for Arts' interagency initiative with the Federal Bureau of Prisons, where he established Yankton Federal Prison Camp's first creative writing and publishing workshop. He is the author of eight books, including the nonfiction collection Bone Chalk, and has received several awards for his writing and public service.