The Band, James Agee, Jerry Garcia, Harry Smith, Alan Lomax, Ken Burns, Walker Evans, Wendell Berry, John Hartford, Betty Smith, Jean Ritchie, Bascom Lamar Lunsford, John Jacob Niles, Townes Van Zandt, Eudora Welty, Fred Chappell, Doc Watson, Gamble Rogers, Edgar Lee Masters, Sherwood Anderson, Greil Marcus, Donald Davidson, Byron Herbert Reece
Born in Byrdstown, Tennessee, midway between Music City and the Smoky Mountains, Jim Clark grew up on a
farm on the Cumberland Plateau surrounded by music, from the unadorned a capella harmonies of the Church
of Christ, to the old-time country of his father's guitar and mandolin playing.
Majoring in English at Vanderbilt University, he was much influenced by the legacy of the Fugitives and
Agrarians - poets such as Robert Penn Warren, John Crowe Ransom, and Allen Tate, noted for their focus on
the connection between literature and the land and their scathing critique of the modern industrial mindset. He
continued his education at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where he received an M.F.A. in
creative writing, and the University of Denver, where he received his Ph.D. in modern literature and creative
writing. Pursuing a balance between the creative and the scholarly, Clark has published two books of poems,
Dancing on Canaans Ruins and Handiwork; written a play, The Girl with the Faraway Eye, staged at the Portland
Actors Conservatory Theatre, Portland, Oregon; edited Fable in the Blood: The Selected Poems of Byron Herbert Reece;
and served as an editor of such literary journals as The Denver Quarterly, The Greensboro Review, and The Vanderbilt
Poetry Review. His most recent book is Notions: A Jim Clark Miscellany.
Much in demand as a reader of his own work and a workshop leader, Clark nevertheless felt something was
missing in his professional life. So, in 1995, he began combining his talents as a singer and musician with his
abilities as a writer and an interpreter of his own work, resulting in a unique multi-disciplinary performance of
poetry and stories rooted in the Appalachian foothills of his birth and complementary old-time mountain music
played on the guitar, banjo, mountain dulcimer, and autoharp. This cross-fertilization of genres culminated in
his recording a CD, Buried Land, featuring poems and music, much of it related to the flooding of his parents'
family farms in the 1940s by the TVA Dale Hollow Dam project.
Clark is currently the Elizabeth H. Jordan Professor of Southern Literature and Writer-in-Residence at Barton College, in Wilson, North Carolina,
where he is Director of The Barton College Creative Writing Symposium and an editor of the literary journal
Crucible. He is also a member of the band The Near Myths: http://www.myspace.com/nearmyths
Thanks for adding me. How have you been doing? I have been trying to play as much music as possible. I have also gotten a new instrument. I got a bowl-back mandolin. Have you ever seen those? Hope you are doing well.
Thanks Jim. I really like your picking too. Yeah, Greg Brown is great. I've seen him a bunch of times and he was a life soundtrack through much of my college years. Thanks for checking out my tunes.
Prof. Clark, it was indeed an honor to participate in your music and poetry program at TTU this past Tuesday, together with our Near Myth colleague, Katy Adams! I'm grateful to be one of your friends!
Hi, Jim. Such a great photo with you surrounded by all those musical instruments! By the way, my sister Janice is looking forward to being in your workshop at Wildacres this summer.
Thank you for the add Mr. Clark. I know this might seem a bit odd and all..but I heard your music and I really do like it...quite a lot in fact. While I really like it all...whomever is playing that harmonica is mighty good.
Hi Jim, Thanks for getting in touch, and for your kind words, “One Night Late” says a lot. Keep up the good work. I have in-laws in Asheville, and have been to there several times - it's a great town. Greetings from Canada, Avard
