Biography
James (Jim) Dodson is Editor of award-winning PineStraw Magazine in Southern Pines, North Carolina, the arts and culture magazine of the Carolina Sandhills. He is also Founding Editor of O.Henry Magazine, the arts and culture sister publication in Greensboro (N.C.), Dodson’s hometown, and Salt Magazine in Wilmington (NC). Upon the acquisition of Business North Carolina Magazine in early 2015 by Old North State Magazines, Dodson was named Editorial Director.
A Distinguished Alumni of East Carolina University, class of 1975, his weekly Sunday essay for The Pilot has won numerous awards from the North Carolina Press Association. Over the course of a 40-year journalism career, his work has earned more than a dozen major awards from the Golf Writers of America and other industry organizations. For two decades he was a Contributing Editor and regular columnist for Golf Magazine, and Golf and Travel Correspondent for Departures Magazine of American Express. He also served as Distinguished Charles Rubin Writer-in-Residence at Hollins University in Virginia.
Dodson’s many mainstream journalism awards include the prestigious William Allen White Award for Public Affairs Journalism plus numerous newspaper and magazine industry awards. His work has appeared in over 50 magazines and newspapers worldwide. He is member of the Maine State Golf Hall of Fame, Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews and the official historian of Seminole Golf Club.
His critically-acclaimed and bestselling books include Final Rounds, Faithful Travelers, The Dewsweepers, Beautiful Madness, The Road to Somewhere, A Golfer’s Life (with Arnold Palmer), Ben Hogan – An American Life, which won the Herbert Warren Wind/USGA International Book Award for 2004. In 2008, he was a featured commentator in the award-winning HBO documentary “Back Nine at Cherry Hills.”
A Son of the Game, published in 2009 by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, was named “Top Golf Book of the Year” by the International Network of Golf, the same award Final Rounds won in 1997. American Triumvirate: Sam Snead, Byron Nelson, Ben Hogan and the Age of Modern Golf, published by Knopf in early 2012, won the USGA Herbert Warren Wind Award for 2012, his second USGA Book of he Year award (Ben Hogan, An American Life won in 2005. Triumvirate was also selected as one of the top 100 Books of 2012 by the New York Times and inspired a documentary of the same name on Golf Channel, with a script by the author.
In early 2011, Dodson was named winner of the prestigious Donald Ross Award, given annually by the American Society of Golf Course Architects, for his significant literary contributions to the game of golf, one of only two golf writers to receive the award.
This same year he was selected for membership in the Order of the Longleaf Pine by the governor of North Carolina, the highest civilian award given to a native the state. He is also serves on the Board of Visitors for East Carolina University.
Dodson and his wife Wendy reside in Greensboro, North Carolina. His current book, titled The Range Bucket List, is published by Simon & Schuster.
The Author keeps an active public speaking life on a range of subjects for corporate and public organizations. Please contact the IMG Speaker’s Bureau.
View his author website at: www. jamesdodsonauthor.com
He can be reached via email: jwdauthor@gmail.com