Jim Ure

Jim Ure, who also writes under the name James W. Ure, is a native Westerner who has authored non-fiction books about fly fishing and bird of prey rehabilitation, as well as his classic book on Mormonism, LEAVING THE FOLD: CANDID CONVERSATIONS WITH INACTIVE MORMONS, written with a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Ure also works in long-form fiction.

Ure holds numerous writing competition awards, including best Utah Novel of 2011 for THE EDITOR'S WOMAN (Originally titled SKYWRITING). This book is part of what Ure calls "The Newspaper Quartet," a look at the historical conflicts of Mormons, Non-Mormons and Inactive Mormons through the prism of competing newspapers in Salt Lake City. He has completed the second book of the series and is working on books three and four.

His most recent book is THE LAUGHING TROUT: A Novel of Fly Fishing in a Mad, Mad World of Love and Pandemonium. It's a sly and comical look at how everything goes wrong when a practical joke backfires on a fly fishing guide.

Soon to be published is a book for businessmen and women who fly fish, titled FLY FISHING FOR SALES: LEARN THE AXIOMS OF SELLING SHARP STEEL HOOKS TO FISH AND YOU CAN MAKE BIG MONEY IN SALES. Ure makes the case for analogies between fly fishing and sales representation and offers case history examples. The book will be available about Feb. 1, 2014.

His literary agent, Sheree Bykofsky, is representing two other works by Ure: POLIO BOYS, a memoir of growing up with a father handicapped by polio; and SULA EATS THE SEA, a young adult novel about a 15 year-old girl who steals her abusive stepfather's sailboat and goes in search of her real father.

He took his bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Utah where he studied on scholarships from the Society of Professional Journalists. He was also a national fellow of the William Randolph Hearst Foundation.

Ure was a staff writer for The Salt Lake Tribune and is a former executive director of the Sundance Film Festival. He owned and operated two advertising agencies.

He frequently writes articles for International Travel News.

Ure has fly fished in many international locations, including rivers in Argentina, Scotland, Yorkshire and New Zealand. Mostly he loves the fishing of the Mountain West, particularly the Henry's Fork of the Snake River and the Bitterroot River in Montana, as well as Utah's Provo River. He writes from his home in Salt Lake City.

Visit his website: www.jimurebooks.com.