Justin Hamm

Originally from the flatlands of central Illinois, Justin Hamm now lives near Twain territory in Missouri. He is the author of four books of poetry -- Drinking Guinness With the Dead: Poems 2007-2021, The Inheritance, American Ephemeral, and Lessons in Ruin -- and a book of photographs entitled Midwestern. He is also the creator of Poet Baseball Cards and the founding editor of the museum of americana.

Justin has been chosen as a 2022 Woody Guthrie Poet, a 2020 Missouri Arts Council Featured Artist, a finalist for the 2018 River Styx International Poetry Prize, and the winner of the 2014 Stanley Hanks Memorial Poetry Prize. In 2022 he delivered a performance entitled "The American Midwest: a Story in Poems" at TEDx Oshkosh. In 2019, his poem "Goodbye, Sancho Panza" was studied by approximately 50,000 students worldwide as part of the World Scholar's Cup curriculum.