Jonis Agee was born in Omaha and grew up in both Nebraska and Missouri, graduating from Central High School in Omaha. She earned her BA from The University of Iowa, and her MA and PhD from the State University of New York – Binghamton University. After living briefly in Los Angeles, she then taught at The College of St. Catherine (now St. Catherine University) in St. Paul, MN, and at the University of Michigan, before returning to her home state to teach at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Agee is currently the Adele Hall Professor of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she specializes in Fiction, Creative Fiction and Modern and Contemporary American Literature. Agee and her husband, Brent Spencer, live on an acreage north of Omaha, Nebraska, overlooking the Missouri River, where they have recently founded a literary press, Brighthorse Books, publishing fiction and poetry books. She also owns land outside Valentine, in the Sandhills region — and her experiences with that rugged landscape have influenced several of her stories and novels.
