UPK, UK Authors Highlight Kentucky Book Festival Schedule

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov. 11, 2019) — For the second year in a row, Kentucky Humanities will host the Kentucky Book Festival, a full week of signings, conversations, trivia, meals, presentations and activities that serves to celebrate the literary movement within the Commonwealth. Across Lexington, authors and editors from the University Press of Kentucky (UPK) and the University of Kentucky, including alumnus and former UK trustee James Hardymon, author of “Engineering Corporate Success: A Memoir,” will participate in events spanning Sunday, Nov. 10 to Saturday, Nov. 16.

The festival kicked off on Sunday, Nov. 10 at 1 p.m. with eight featured authors at Newport Aquarium’s WAVE on Wheels located at ArtsPlace.

UK associate professor of English, poet and novelist Crystal Wilkinson will moderate the Literary Luncheon noon Tuesday, Nov. 12, at ArtsPlace. Author, Appalachian Center scholar-in-residence and Department of English professor Gurney Norman will also take part, reading from his works and answering audience questions alongside UK alumni and former faculty members Bobbie Ann Mason and Ed McClanahan. They will be joined by former faculty member Mary Ann Taylor-Hall as well. Tickets are $40 and available at www.kyhumanities.org.

A screening of the documentary that centers around UK alumnus and former faculty member Wendell Berry called “Look & See: A Portrait of Wendell Berry” will take place at the historic Kentucky Theatre beginning 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 13. On hand to discuss the film with its director, Laura Dunn, will be Tanya Amyx Berry, Berry’s wife and fellow UPK author.

The week of festivities will close with the 38th annual Kentucky Book Fair from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 16, at Alltech Arena at the Kentucky Horse Park. Over 200 authors will be present for panel discussions, book signings and more.

During the fair, Melynda Price, the William L. Matthews, Jr. Professor of Law in the College of Law and director of the Gaines Center for the Humanities, will be joined by Steve Luxenberg, author of "Separate: The Story of Plessy v. Ferguson, and America’s Journey From Slavery to Segregation," in conversation on the University of Kentucky Main Stage at 10:30 a.m. At 12:30 p.m., Tanya Amyx Berry will discuss "For the Hog Killing, 1979" on the UK Main Stage alongside editor Ben Aguilar.

In addition, Frank X Walker, a professor in the UK Department of English, will talk about his book, “Last Will, Last Testament,” on the UK HealthCare South Stage at 2:30 p.m. Walker will also act as moderator in a conversation with Indiana Poet Laureate Adrian Matejka and novelist Michael Datcher.

Many of the UPK authors and editors who will participate in the Kentucky Book Fair this year have connections to UK. They are:

• alumnus and former faculty member Wendell Berry, author featured in “For the Hog Killing, 1979” among others;
• former faculty member George Ella Lyon, author of “Many-Storied House: Poems” and co-author of “Trains Run” with Benn Lyon;
• professor and alumnus Gurney Norman, author of “Allegiance” and editor of “Back Talk from Appalachia: Confronting Stereotypes”;
• former UK Men’s Basketball coach Joe B. Hall, author of “Coach Hall: My Life On and Off the Court”;
• alumnus, benefactor and former UK trustee James Hardymon, author of “Engineering Corporate Success: A Memoir”;
• alumnus Lamar Herrin, author of “Fishing the Jumps: A Novel”;
• alumna and former writer-in-residence Bobbie Ann Mason, author of “Patchwork: A Bobbie Ann Mason Reader”;
• alumnus and former faculty member Ed McClanahan, author of “Famous People I Have Known”;
• former assistant director of the William S. Webb Museum of Anthropology Nancy O’Malley, author of “Boonesborough Unearthed: Frontier Archaeology at a Revolutionary Fort”;
• professor emeritus Karl Raitz, author of “Bourbon’s Backroads: A Journey Through Kentucky’s Distilling Landscape";
• alumnus and senior oral historian in the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History Terry Birdwhistell, editor of “Engineering Corporate Success: A Memoir”;
• former faculty member Mary Ann Taylor-Hall, contributor to “A Careful Hunger: Poems”; 
• current faculty member Crystal Wilkinson, author of “The Birds of Opulence”; and
• former editor of Odyssey  and current Kentucky Poet Laureate Jeff Worley, author of “Lucky Talk: 26 Short Poems” and editor of “What Comes Down to Us: 25 Contemporary Kentucky Poets.”

Current faculty member in the UK Department of History Amy Murrell Taylor, author of “Embattled Freedom: Journeys through the Civil War’s Slave Refugee Camps,” will be signing copies from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 16. Joshua A. Douglas, UK College of Law Thomas P. Lewis Professor of Law, will also be present from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. for singings of his book “Vote for US: How to Take Back Our Elections and Change the Future of Voting.”

Other UPK authors and editors participating and their corresponding books are:

• Minnie Adkins, illustrator of “Ring Around the Moon: Mommy Goose Rhymes”;
• Jeffrey Bilbro, author of “Virtues of Renewal: Wendell Berry’s Sustainable Forms”;
• Roy E. “Reb” Brownell, co-author of “The U.S. Senate and the Commonwealth: Kentucky Lawmakers and the Evolution of Legislative Leadership”;
• Juilee Decker, author of “Enid Yandell: Kentucky’s Pioneer Sculptor”;
• Dan and Judy Dourson, co-authors of “Wildflowers and Ferns of Red River Gorge and the Greater Red River Basin”;
• John I. Gilderbloom, author of “Chromatic Homes: The Design and Coloring Book” (distributed by UPK);
• Jennifer S. Kelly, author of “Sir Barton and the Making of the Triple Crown”;
• Thomas Kiffmeyer, author of “Reformers to Radicals: The Appalachian Volunteers and the War on Poverty”;
• Peter Lee, author of “Spectacular Bid: The Last Superhorse of the Twentieth Century”;
• Jeffrey J. Matthews, author of “Colin Powell: Imperfect Patriot”;
• Andrew T. McDonald and Verlaine Stoner McDonald, co-authors of “Paul Rusch in Postwar Japan: Evangelism, Rural Development, and the Battle Against Communism”;
• Mike Norris, author of “Ring Around the Moon: Mommy Goose Rhymes”;
• John Spaulding, co-editor of “Civil War Recipes: Receipts from the Pages of Godey’s Lady’s Book”;
• Bob Thompson, author of “Stitched Together: Stories of a Kentucky Life”;
• John van Willigen, author of “Kentucky’s Cookbook Heritage: Two Hundred Years of Southern Cuisine and Culture”;
• Robert D. Webster, author of “A Brief History of Northern Kentucky”; and
• John K. Young, editor of “A Careful Hunger: Poems.”

Each year, the Kentucky Book Festival attracts thousands of readers and book lovers from across the nation. A vast selection of books for all ages will be available for purchase at the Kentucky Book Fair on Nov. 16. The book fair is open to the public and admission and parking are free. Some events will require tickets and the most updated list of events and details can be found at www.kyhumanities.org/programs/kentucky-book-festival.