Meet Kentucky’s new literary stars and writers who keep rich literary heritage alive

Readers and writers. Local and national. All will converge the first week of November for the Kentucky Book Festival, a weeklong celebration of reading, writing and books.

It’s like the Burger Week of books – but this weeklong celebration feeds the soul, sparks the imagination and inspires creativity.

National historians, novelists, journalists and children’s writers will be on-hand to interact with festival-goers. But the festival also is a reflection of the rich literary history of Kentucky that is passed on from generation to generation – from William Wells Brown, considered the first published Black novelist; to Robert Penn Warren, the first poet laureate of the United States and the only person who has received Pulitzer Prizes for both poetry and fiction; to poet, novelist and environmentalist Wendell Berry; to Kentucky’s Poet Laureate Crystal Wilkinson.

Writer and professor Gurney Norman, who is participating in the festival, observed this about Kentucky’s literary culture: “I have always been fascinated by such literary lore connected to country places and towns I have lived in and identified with,” Norman wrote. “There’s something about the convergence of story and landscape, of myth and reality that is meaningful to me in ways I can’t explain. I think many people who have strong place-identity share this fascination. For me, it has to do with tracks laid down by predecessors...”

He noted that Lexington journalist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author A.B. Guthrie Jr., began offering fiction writing classes on the UK campus and influenced a young writer named Walter Tevis, who went on to write “The Hustler,” “The Color of Money” and “The Queen’s Gambit.”

Gurney then mentions that one of his greatest satisfactions as a teacher of creative writing at UK has been to witness the progress of his former student Frank X Walker, who also will participate in the festival. And no doubt Walker, an award-winning author, educator and co-founder of the Affrilachian Poets, will be joined at future festivals by some of the countless students he is impacting at UK today.

A program of Kentucky Humanities, the Kentucky Book Festival (formerly Kentucky Book Fair) is the first and largest book festival in the Commonwealth. After going virtual for a year, we are excited to be back in person and to have a new venue – Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Lexington. We believe it’s important to have a partnership with one of the country’s few large independent bookstores.

The daylong event on Saturday, Nov. 6 will feature 140 authors. It will be a mix of homegrown talent and national figures, including Crystal Wilkinson, Elin Hilderbrand, Silas House, H. W. Brands, Frank X Walker, Brian Kilmeade, Gwenda Bond, Cinda Williams Chima, Sam Quinones, and W. Bruce Cameron.

Prior to the Nov. 6 event, which is free and open to the public, five weekday events at various locations throughout Lexington will include:

▪ A Virtual Chat with best-selling young adult author Jason Reynolds;

▪ A Literary Luncheon with Chef Ouita Michel and Susan Reigler;

▪ Cocktails & Conversation with Margaret Verble and Kim Edwards;

▪ Literary Trivia Night; and

▪ Commerce Lexington SPOTLIGHT Breakfast with James Hardymon and Terry L. Birdwhistell.

Forty years ago, the late Carl West, editor of the Frankfort State-Journal, started this festival. It is the first and largest book festival in Kentucky. We hope we have honored his vision, and that of hundreds of dedicated volunteers, as we continue to expand and evolve to include craft discussions and panels on a variety of topics such as writing Southern historical fiction, writing through grief and how to become a self-publishing superstar.

Whether you want to meet your favorite authors, rub elbows with writers, learn about the craft of writing, spend time with other book lovers and meet celebrity authors you never would see otherwise, it will be happening at the Kentucky Book Festival.

But most of all, we want to keep that rich literary heritage alive and spark the next generation of Kentucky authors.

Woods is director and special projects coordinator for the Kentucky Book Festival, which is a program of Kentucky Humanities. Goodman is executive director of Kentucky Humanities.