Jim McGarrah is the author of five books of poetry, Running the Voodoo Down (Elixir Press, 2003) and When the Stars Go Dark, (Main Street Rag, 2009), Breakfast at Denny's (Ink Brush Press, 2012) The Truth About Mangoes (Lamar University Press, 2016) A Balancing Act (Lamar University Press, 2018) and four books of nofiction, A Temporary Sort of Peace (Indiana Historical Society Press, 2007), which received the Eric Hoffer Award for Legacy Nonfiction and was a finalist for the Montaigne Medal, The End of an Era (Ink Brush Press, 2011), Off Track (Blue Heron Book Works, 2017) and Misdemeanor Outlaw (Blue Heron Book Works, 2019). He is editor, along with Tom Watson, of the anthology Home Again: Essays and Memoirs from Indiana (Indiana Historical Society Press, 2007). McGarrah holds an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and an MA in Liberal Studies from the University of Southern Indiana.