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Friday, Mar. 13, 2009

Gurney Norman new Ky. poet laureate

Gov. Steve Beshear has appointed Gurney Norman as Kentucky's poet laureate for a two-year term.

Norman is the head of the creative writing program at the University of Kentucky, a post he has held for nearly 30 years. He is also the writer in residence at the Hindman Settlement School's annual Writers Workshop.

Norman's writings include Divine Right's Trip: A Folk Tale (1972) and Book One From Crazy Quilt: A Novel in Progress (1990). He has edited or co-edited several collections of Appalachian writing and narrated three films about Appalachia for Kentucky Educational Television. Norman is a native of Grundy, Va., and was raised in Western Virginia and Eastern Kentucky.

He will be formally introduced as poet laureate on April 24 in the Capitol Rotunda in Frankfort as part of Kentucky Writers Day.