Andy Wilkinson

Andy Wilkinson brings a varied background of college and graduate school, of a dozen years as a policeman, and an equal stretch as a businessman to his work as a full-time writer and singer of contemporary western folk music, as well as a poet, playwright and teacher. He has recorded eight albums of music and poetry: ”Texas When Texas Was Free” (1990), ”Deep in the Heart” (1992), “Charlie Goodnight” (1994), “The Road is Still the Road” (1996), “Storyteller” (1998), “An Ordinary Christmas” (2000), “Radio Free America” (2005), “Welcome to the Tribe” (2010), and “Long Ways from Home (with Andy Hedges)“ (2010). He has written seven plays, among them “Charlie Goodnight’s last Night”, “My Cowboy’s Gift”, and “A Way in the West”, as well as having taught song-writing and multi-disciplinary creative seminars at Texas Tech University. His creative work recounts the long human occupation of the Panhandle from Native American days to that of the modern cotton farmer and oilfield worker, and celebrates the unique character and special value of the High Plains’ shortgrass prairie, open skies, and deep Ogallala aquifer.

Consistent with his varied interests and activities, he has garnered five Wrangler Awards from the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in four different categories: in 1995 and 1997 for Outstanding Original Western Composition; in 1999 for Outstanding Poetry Book; and in 2010 with Andy Hedges for Outstanding Western Album and for producing that same album. An early contributor to Dry Crik Review, Andy’s poetry can also be found in the anthologies “Maverick Western Verse” (Gibbs Smith 1994), the 1996 Wrangler Award winner “Between Earth and Sky” (Norton 1995) edited by Anne Heath Widmark, and “Cowboy Poetry Matters” (Storyline Press 2000) edited by Robert McDowell.

Andy Wilkinson can be found at Texas Tech University as artist-in-residence at the Southwest Collection, visiting assistant professor in the School of Music, and teaching his course, “The Zen of the Whole Enchilada: Envisioning the Creative Process.”

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