Jim Reese is an Associate Professor of English; Director of the Great Plains Writers' Tour at Mount Marty College in Yankton, South Dakota; and Editor-in-Chief of PADDLEFISH. Reese's poetry and prose have been widely published, most recently in New York Quarterly, Poetry East, Paterson Literary Review, Louisiana Literature Review, Connecticut Review, and elsewhere. His book ghost on 3rd was a Finalist for the 2010 Milt Kessler Poetry Award. Other recent awards include a 2012 Allen Ginsberg Poetry Award and a 2012 Distinguished Public Service Award in recognition of Reese's exemplary dedication and contributions to the Education Department at the Yankton Federal Prison Camp. Since 2008, Reese has been one of six artists-in-residence throughout the country who are part of the National Endowment for the Art's interagency initiative with the Department of Justice's Federal Bureau of Prisons. His new book Really Happy was released by New York Quarterly Books in 2014. Reese and his family live in southern South Dakota, near John Wesley Powell's one hundredth meridian -- better than most determinants for where the American West begins.