New Books by Great Writers 2007-2008

A series of literary readings and workshops

Last Year's Series - New Books by Great Writers 2006-2007

The Carnegie Center is proud to announce the fourth annual New Books by Great Writers reading and workshop series. Some of Kentucky’s finest literary talents, as well as exceptional writers with ties to the state, will be on hand to read from new work and to share their craft with workshop participants. Past readers in the series include former Kentucky Poets Laureate Sena Jeter Naslund (Abundance, Ahab’s Wife) and Richard Taylor (Sue Mundy), as well as Kim Edwards (The Memory Keeper’s Daughter), Silas House (The Coal Tattoo), Lynn Pruett (Ruby River), and Frank X Walker (Buffalo Dance). This year poet Leatha Kendrick will reprise her role as Project Coordinator and will once again lead The Eclectic Living Room sessions the week before each reading scheduled in the series.

All readings are free and open to the public. Workshops are $25 each, or $100 for as many workshops as a subscriber wishes to attend in the 2007-2008 series.

Unless otherwise indicated, all readings and workshops will take place at the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning, 251 W. Second Street, Lexington.

Friday, Sep. 21: LEATHA KENDRICK AND KY POET LAUREATE JANE GENTRY VANCE

6:30 pm: Reading and signing of Leatha Kendrick’s Science in Your Own Back Yard and the forthcoming Second Opinion, as well as Jane Gentry Vance’s Portrait of the Artist as a White Pig

New Books by Great Writers Project Coordinator Leatha Kendrick has taught creative writing at the University of Kentucky, the Carnegie Center, the Appalachian Writers Workshop, and elsewhere. The former poetry editor of Wind magazine, she is widely published. She is the author of two books of poetry, Science in Your Own Back Yard and Heart Cake. Her poetry and essays have appeared in such periodicals as The Louisville Review, The American Voice, and Passages North, and in anthologies from Western Kentucky University Press, Helicon Nine Editions, and the University Press of Kentucky. Her latest collection, Second Opinion, is forthcoming from David Robert Books in Cincinnati, an imprint of WordTech Press.

Jane Gentry Vance (published as Jane Gentry) was born and raised in central Kentucky, which has deeply influenced her writing. She has a distinguished career blending her work as a poet and as an educator. Vance began teaching at Georgetown College in 1964. She joined the faculty of the University of Kentucky in 1972; was awarded tenure and promoted to Associate Professor to the Honors Program in 1977; was jointly appointed to the English Department in 1988; promoted to Full Professor in 1997 and was appointed to the English Graduate Faculty in 2005. She continues to teach at the University of Kentucky. Vance is the author of Portrait of the Artist as a White Pig, a collection of 50 poems, published by Louisiana State University Press in 2006; A Year in Kentucky: A Garland of Poems, a collection of 12 poems published by Press Eight Seventeen in 2005; and A Garden in Kentucky, a collection of 60 poems, published by Louisiana State University Press in 1995. Her poems have also been published in notable anthologies and journals such as the Sewanee Review, Harvard Magazine, Southern Poetry Review, the American Voice and Humanities in the South.

Thursday, Oct. 18: ROBERT HICKS

6:30 pm: Reading and signing of Widow of the South

7:30-9:00 pm: Hands-on workshop with the author: THE IMPORTANCE OF FICTION IN PRESERVING HISTORY

Robert Hicks was born and raised in South Florida. In 1974 he moved to Williamson County, Tennessee; in 1979 he moved to 'Labor in Vain,' a late-eighteenth-century log cabin, near Leiper's Fork, Tennessee. Working both as a music publisher and in artist management in both country and rock music, Hick's interests remain broad and varied. A partner in the B. B. King's Blues clubs in Nashville, Memphis and Los Angeles, Hicks serves as 'Curator of Vibe' of the corporation.

Thursday, Nov. 15: ELIZABETH HICKEY

6:30 pm: Reading and signing of The Wayward Muse

7:30-9:00 pm: Hands-on workshop with the author: WRITING AND THE MUSE

Elizabeth Hickey was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky. She received her B.A. in art history from Williams College in Williamstown, MA., and her M.F.A. in creative writing from Columbia University in New York City. Her first novel, The Painted Kiss, was published by Atria Books in 2005. Elizabeth lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and son.

Thursday, Dec. 13: JIM TOMLINSON

6:30 pm: Reading and signing of Things Kept, Things Left Behind

7:30-9:00 pm: Hands-on workshop with the author: POINT OF VIEW IN FICTION: WHO’S TELLING THIS STORY, ANYWAY?

Jim Tomlinson’s short story collection, Things Kept, Things Left Behind, won the 2006 Iowa Short Fiction Award. His work has appeared in Five Points, Potomac Review, Shenandoah, and elsewhere. Recipient of an Al Smith Fellowship and a Walter E. Dakin Fellowship, Jim and his wife, fiber artist Gin Petty, live in Berea, Kentucky.

Thursday, January 17: GEORGE ELLA LYON

6:30 pm: Reading and signing of Don’t You Remember?

7:30-9:00 pm: Hands-on writing workshop with the author: WRITING WHAT YOU CAN'T REMEMBER

George Ella Lyon is originally from Harlan County, Kentucky and has published thirty-five books for children and adults. Her most recent titles include Don’t You Remember? (a memoir due out in April), No Dessert Forever! and Trucks Roll! (picture books), Sonny’s House of Spies (a novel for young readers, recently adapted for the stage), and a reprint of the adult novel With a Hammer for My Heart. Married to musician/writer Steve Lyon, she is the mother of two sons, and makes her living as a freelance writer and teacher in Lexington.

7:30-9:00 pm: Hands-on writing workshop with the author

Thursday, February 21: GREG DOWNS

6:30 pm: Reading and signing of Spit Baths, winner of the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction

7:30 pm: Hands-on writing workshop with the author: Writing Good Dialogue--How to Fool the Reader into Believing What Your Characters Say

Greg Downs’s first book, Spit Baths, was published by the University of Georgia Press in October 2006. It won the Flannery O'Connor Award, and the stories have been published in Black Warrior Review, Glimmer Train, The Greensboro Review, and elsewhere. Raised in central Kentucky, Middle Tennessee, and an end-of-the-road valley in Kauai, Hawaii, Downs now lives in West Philadelphia with his wife and cat, who is named for a famous 1970s country music singer. Along with writing fiction, Downs also writes and researches history, and recently received a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. He is currently an Assistant Professor of History at a university in New York City.

Thursday, March 20: MARIE BRADBY

6:30 pm: Reading and signing

Award-winning author Marie Bradby switched from a career as a full-time journalist to writing for children after the birth of her son. Even though her days as a journalist are behind her, she uses her sharp investigative skills as she interviews people and researches archives to fill in crucial details and bring her characters to life in her historical fiction. She has given presentations at schools, writing workshops and literature conferences all over the country. She has been a staff writer for National Geographic Magazine and for the Providence Journal, the Lexington Herald-Leader, and the Louisville Courier-Journal newspapers. Her books for children include the notable Some Friend, which will be published in paperback in January 2007.

Thursday, April 17: LYNNELL EDWARDS

6:30 pm: Reading and signing of The Highwayman’s Wife

7:30-9:00 pm: Hands-on writing workshop with the author: A CONSIDERATION OF THE ‘LINE’ IN POETRY

Lynnell Edwards is the author of The Farmer's Daughter. Her work has appeared in Poets Against the War; Raising Our Voices: Oregon Poets Against the War; and numerous literary journals including: Poems & Plays, Southern Poetry Review, Poetry East, and Dos Passos Review. She is a regular reviewer for The Georgia Review, Pleiades, and Rain Taxi. She lives in Louisville, Kentucky where she teaches at the University of Louisville. She received her doctorate in English at the University of Louisville and her undergraduate degree at Centre College in Kentucky. She is the recipient of a 2007 Al Smith Fellowship from the Kentucky Arts Council.

Lynnell Edwards is the author of two collections of poetry, both from Red Hen Press: The Highwayman's Wife (2007) and The Farmer's Daughter (2003).

Congratulations to our Next Great Writers!