Andy Wilkinson is a poet, song writer, singer, playwright, and visual artist whose particular interest is the history and peoples of the Great Plains. He has recorded a dozen albums of original music and has written seven plays. In addition to magazine articles and chapters in various non-fiction books, he has written four monographs: “A Family of the Land: the Texas Photography of Guy Gillette” (University of Oklahoma Press, 2013); “Storyline” (Dry Crik Press, 2017); “Surprise, Texas” (a novel, Zenchilada Press, 2018); “Mystery Mechanics: the Creative Process” (Zenchilada Press, 2020); “Llanero: a boyhood on the 360-of-180” (a memoir, Zenchilada Press, 2021); and “Raw + Ripe, Collected Poems 1965-2023” (Zenchilada Press, 2023). He has been recognized with several awards, among them the Kerrville Folk Festival’s New Folk Contest (1985), the Texas Historical Foundation’s John Ben Shepperd Jr. Craftsmanship Award, and seven National Western Heritage Wrangler Awards in five different categories. His visual art works are principally done in gouache, pencil, or pastel. Since 2001, he has been affiliated with Texas Tech University, having served as Artist in Residence at the Southwest Collection, as an instructor in songwriting in the School of Music, and as a teacher in the Honors College. Retired from his regular duties with the University, he continues to teach.

For Julie Blackstock and the Liberty High School Orchestras