James Hoggard is a translator, a playwright, a novelist, an essayist, and a poet whose work has appeared in numerous publications, including Arts & Letters, Harvard Review, and Words Without Borders. He is the recipient of the Lon Tinkle Award for Excellence Sustained Throughout a Career, a poet laureate of Texas, and the former president of the Texas Institute of Letters. He is the Perkins-Prothro Distinguished Professor of English at Midwestern State University and the author of more than 20 books, including The Devil's Fingers & Other Personal Essays, The Mayor's Daughter, Riding the Wind, Triangles of Light: The Edward Hopper Poems, Trotter Ross, and Wearing the River. He lives in Wichita Falls, Texas.