'Behind the Blue': Creative writing with Frank X Walker
LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 1, 2023) — Frank X Walker is the director of the University of Kentucky's Master of Fine Arts (MFA) program in creative writing. The state of Kentucky has a long and storied tradition of writers — across genres of fiction, poetry and essays — who are deeply connected to the state — its geography and landscape, its history and challenges. The program’s current faculty roster includes nationally recognized authors across a number of genres.
Walker is extending the legacy of UK and Kentucky’s reputation as central to the writing community, working as a poet, writer and artist. He has recently published a book geared toward a younger audience and is now at work on a new collection of poems that examines a dramatic family history that dates back to the Civil War era.
Walker is a founding member of the Affrilachian Poets, a founder/executive director of the Bluegrass Black Arts Consortium, the program coordinator of UK's Martin Luther King Cultural Center and a Kentucky Arts Council Al Smith Fellowship recipient. A native of Danville, Kentucky, Walker is a graduate of the University of Kentucky and was the 2013-14 Poet Laureate for the Commonwealth of Kentucky. He sat down with "Behind the Blue" recently to discuss his current and future writing endeavors, as well as how he pitches the UK MFA program to outstanding young talent.
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