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James F. (Jim) Hoy is Professor of English at Emporia State University. Reared on a stock ranch near Cassoday, he has lived in the Flint Hills area all his life, except for graduate school in Missouri and a teaching stint in Idaho.
Hoy holds a B.S. degree (1961) from Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS; an M.A. (1965) from Emporia State University; and a Ph.D. (1970) from the University of Missouri-Columbia. After a couple of years of itinerancy following undergraduate school, he taught two years at El Dorado (Kansas) Junior High (1963-65) before moving into college teaching. He served as Chair of English at ESU for ten years, returning happily to the ranks of full-time teaching and research in 1990.
Hoy's academic interests include medieval English literature, Western American literature, Australian Outback folklife and literature, and Great Plains folklore. He has published over a hundred articles, both scholarly and journalistic, and is the author or co-author of nine books, including FLINT HILLS COWBOYS: TALES OF THE TALLGRASS PRAIRIE, published by the University Press of Kansas.
His chief interest is the folklife of ranching, both historical and contemporary, in various parts of the world, with special emphasis on the Great Plains and particularly the Flint Hills of Kansas. He explores this interest in frequent lectures and programs for school, community, and professional groups throughout the region. Since 1983 he has written (with Tom Isern) a weekly newspaper column, PLAINS FOLK. In 1996 he was appointed to the Board of Trustees of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, serving as Chair for the last two years of his term (2001-2002).
Hoy's research has taken him onto the backroads of the American West, the tracks of the Australian bush, and the lanes of the English countryside, seeking, among other things, to discover cattle guards, hay barracks, folk songs, and old-timers willing to talk about the way things were.
As a folklorist and a native plainsman, Hoy is committed to documenting and celebrating the lives of his fellow plains folk, seeking out the extraordinary in the ordinary while encouraging pride of region in those fortunate few who dwell in the Great Plains and understanding of region in those who must live elsewhere.
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Books:
- The Flint Hills (The Konza Press, 2011)
- Cowboy's Lament: A Life on the Open Range (Texas Tech University Press, 2010)
- A Window on Flint Hills Folklife: The Mardin Ranch Diaries, 1862-1863 (Emporia State University Center for Great Plains Studies, 2009)
 Flint Hills Cowboys: Tales from the Tallgrass Prairie (University Press of Kansas, 2006)- Vaqueros, Cowboys, and Buckaroos (M.K. Brown Range Life Series) (University of Texas Press, 2001)
- Tallgrass Essays: Papers from the Symposium in Honor of Dr. Ramon Powers (Kansas Historical Society, 2003)
- Cowboys and Kansas: Stories from the Tallgrass Prairie (University of Oklahoma Press, 1995)
- Prairie Poetry: Cowboy Verse of Kansas (Wichita Eagle Beacon Publishing Co, 1995)
- Riding Point: A Centennial History of the Kansas Livestock Association (North Dakota State University Center for Regional Studies, 1994)
- Plains Folk II: The Romance of the Landscape (University of Oklahoma Press, 1990)
- Plains Folk: A Commonplace of the Great Plains (University of Oklahoma Press, 1987)
- Cassoday, Cow Capital of Kansas: A Memorial History (Butler County Historical Society, 1987)
- Cattle Guard: It's History and Lore (University Press of Kansas, 1982)
- The Language Experience (Delta Books, 1974)
Films:
- "The Flint Hills Of Kansas" (Kaw Valley Films, 1987)
Critical and Historical Articles
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