Irene McKinney is the author of The Girl with a Stone in Her Lap (North Atlantic, 1976); The Wasps at the Blue Hexagons (Small Pot Press, 1984); Quick Fire and Slow Fire (North Atlantic, 1988); and Six O'Clock Mine Report (University of Pittsburg Press, 1989). She edited the anthology Backcountry: Contemporary Writing in West Virgina (West Virginia University Press, 2002). She was appointed Poet Laureate of West Virginia in 1994. Her poems have appeared in leading journals, including American Voice, Art & Letters, The Georgia Review, The Kenyon Review, and Poetry. She currently teaches at West Virginia Wesleyan College.

About Vivid Companion:

"What a rich, evocative world is Irene McKinney's. She writes with a strong soul, a great ear, and a commanding vista. She knows the trees, the birds, the manners, and the difficult history of Appalachian America; she knows, this fine poet, the ways of the human heart.""
—David Baker

"While Irene McKinney's Vivid Companion certainly benefits from its regional focus, it is by no means a regional book. McKinney has a clear, refreshing empathy for others, and a deep personal humility in the face of everything we confront in our daily lives, no matter where we live, no matter where we come from."
—Jim Daniels