Though born in South Carolina and, as a child, having taken up residence for extended periods of time in both Florida and Texas, J Brian Long has spent most of his life in eastern Tennessee. A hotel manager by trade, he also serves on the board of directors for the Knoxville Writer’s Guild and edits the poetry section of The Christian Guide. He is the proud father of two sons, Nat and Tad, and keeps house with his life’s love, Merrie, to whom he has been wed since 1988.

Among other things, he enjoys traveling, tennis, and sitting on his porch swing with pen and paper in hand. J Brian Long began writing in earnest in 1992, and has spent a great deal of effort since then honing his craft through independent study, flagrant imitation of poets he most admires, such as Sandburg, Naomi Nye, Jill Alexander Essbaum, MacLeish, and Peter Ackroyd, and has come to his first book as a result of the careful critique and guidance given him by others more wise and experienced than he. Though his work has appeared in various magazines and literary journals and has now found a home with Wind Publications, he is not at all satisfied with his poetry, and, in fact, does not consider a single piece he has written as being “done”. He admits to a great deal of uncertainty when it comes to his own poems, and even more so to those written by others, but holds to the belief that he will one day “write words that shake the earth.” In the meantime, though, he attempts going about it one poem, one reader, at a time.