Joe Wilkins grew up in eastern Montana on a sheep and hay ranch north of the Bull Mountains. He is the author of a memoir, The Mountain and the Father, winner of a 2014 GLCA New Writers Award, and three collections of poetry, including When We Were Birds, winner of the 2017 Oregon Book Award in Poetry. His debut novel Fall Back Down When I Die was praised as "remarkable and unforgettable" in Booklist (starred review). He lives with his family in western Oregon, where he directs the creative writing program at Linfield College.