JONATHAN T. BAILEY
JONATHAN T. BAILEY is the author of the literary memoir When I Was Red Clay: A Journey of Identity, Healing, and Wonder and co-author of The Greater San Rafael Swell. His work has been published in Archaeology Southwest, The Salt Lake Tribune, Indian Country Today, and more. As an artist and conservation photographer Jonathan’s works turn an eye to the Utah desert that forged him. He lives in Tucson, Arizona.
BEHIND THE BOOK
An interview with Jonathan T. Bailey about the making of his forthcoming poetry collection, The Sun Has Shifted As Have I (coming soon!).
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BOOKS BY THE AUTHOR
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THE SUN HAS SHIFTED AS HAVE I
Poems
COMING APRIL 2026!
A lyric reckoning with the radical possibility of joy.
Jonathan T. Bailey maps the process of transformation, weaving themes of longing, belonging, and self-discovery. Set against the beauty of the West where the buzz of cicadas and the song of the hermit thrush echo across the desert, the collection draws power from the land’s ability to hold both desolation and renewal. Bailey’s poetry embraces contradiction as essential to healing, refusing to separate pain from beauty or vulnerability from strength. Rather than offering closure, these poems reveal how wholeness is forged through emotional risk and the clarity gained by facing oneself fully.
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“Bailey’s poems hold a kind of wisdom that feels desperately needed in our times.” ​
—SUNNI BROWN WILKINSON, Rodeo
WHEN I WAS RED CLAY
A Journey of Identity, Healing, & Wonder
This intimate record lays bare one person’s experience growing up in a rural Mormon community and struggling to reconcile his sexual orientation with the religious doctrine of his childhood. Finding solace and connection in wild places, Jonathan T. Bailey lived two lives—one of trauma, the other of wonder. In When I Was Red Clay, he navigates self–discovery, grief, and the loss of faith with unflinching honesty and biting humor.
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“Touching on current events and topics, from conservation and immigration to suicide and autism, Bailey has penned a thought-provoking memoir. The wilderness of deserts in Utah and Arizona are their own characters . . . Readers will find hope and peace on these beautifully written pages."
—LIBRARY JOURNAL (starred review)