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Judy Gaines Young Book Award
The Judy Gaines Young Book Award is given annually by Transylvania University to honor the author of a book of distinction written in the Appalachian region in the previous two or three years. The award was endowed in 2015 by Dr. Byron Young, a Lexington-area professor and neurologist, in honor of his late wife. The program is currently coordinated by Transylvania Professor of English Martha Billips and Poet-in-Residence Maurice Manning. Winners * 2015 - Holly Goddard Jones for ''The Next Time You See Me'' * 2016 - Amy Greene for ''Long Man'' * 2017 - Crystal Wilkinson for ''The Birds of Opulence'' * 2018 - Kathleen Driskell for ''Next Door to the Dead'' * 2019 - Silas House for ''Southernmost'' * 2020 - Frank X Walker for ''Last Will, Last Testament'' Past Nominees 2015 * Ron Houchin for ''The Man Who Saws Us in Half'' * George Ella Lyon for ''Many-Storied House'' * Jeff Daniel Marion for ''Letters to the Dead'' * Allison Seay for ''To See the Queen'' * Lee Smith for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Transylvania University
Transylvania University is a private university in Lexington, Kentucky. It was founded in 1780 and was the first university in Kentucky. It offers 46 major programs, as well as dual-degree engineering programs, and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Its medical program graduated 8,000 physicians by 1859.John, Jr. Wright, ed. ''Transylvania: Tutor to the West'' (2nd ed. 1980) Transylvania's name, meaning "across the woods" in Latin, stems from the university's founding in the heavily forested region of western Virginia known as the Transylvania Colony, which existed briefly between 1775 and 1776 in south and western Kentucky. Transylvania is the alma mater of two U.S. vice presidents, two U.S. Supreme Court justices, 50 U.S. senators, 101 U.S. representatives, 36 U.S. governors, 34 U.S. ambassadors, and the Confederate president, making it a large producer of U.S. statesmen. History Transylvania was the first college west of the Allegheny Mou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Appalachia
Appalachia () is a cultural region in the Eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York State to northern Alabama and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, to Cheaha Mountain in Alabama, ''Appalachia'' typically refers only to the cultural region of the central and southern portions of the range, from the Catskill Mountains of New York southwest to the Blue Ridge Mountains which run southwest from southern Pennsylvania to northern Georgia, and the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina. In 2020, the region was home to an estimated 26.1 million people, of which roughly 80% are white. Since its recognition as a distinctive region in the late 19th century, Appalachia has been a source of enduring myths and distortions regarding the isolation, temperament, and behavior of its inhabitants. Early 20th century writers often engaged in yellow journalism focused on sensational ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lexington, Kentucky
Lexington is a city in Kentucky, United States that is the county seat of Fayette County, Kentucky, Fayette County. By population, it is the List of cities in Kentucky, second-largest city in Kentucky and List of United States cities by population, 57th-largest city in the United States. By land area, it is the country's List of United States cities by area, 28th-largest city. The city is also known as "Horse Capital of the World". It is within the state's Bluegrass region. Notable locations in the city include the Kentucky Horse Park, The Red Mile and Keeneland race courses, Rupp Arena, Central Bank Center, Transylvania University, the University of Kentucky, and Bluegrass Community and Technical College. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census the population was 322,570, anchoring a Lexington-Fayette, KY Metropolitan Statistical Area, metropolitan area of 516,811 people and a Lexington-Fayette-Frankfort-Richmond, KY Combined Statistical Area, combined statistical ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maurice Manning (poet)
Maurice Manning (born 1966) is an American poet. His first collection of poems, ''Lawrence Booth's Book of Visions'', was awarded the Yale Younger Poets Award, chosen by W.S. Merwin. Since then he has published four collections of poetry (with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Copper Canyon Press). He teaches English and Creative Writing at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, where he oversees the Judy Gaines Young Book Award, and is a member of the poetry faculty of the Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers. Life Manning was born in Danville, Kentucky. He attended Earlham College and the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Tuscaloosa. From 2000 to 2004, Manning taught at DePauw University. In the fall of 2004 he began teaching in the Indiana University M.F.A. Program. He is on the faculty of the Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers and in January 2012 he was hired by Transylvania University, a small liberal arts college in Lexington, Kentucky. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Holly Goddard Jones
Holly Goddard Jones is an American novelist, educator, and short story author. Early life Jones was born and raised in Russellville, Kentucky, a setting which influenced her books ''Girl Trouble'' and ''The Next Time You See Me'', both of which are set in the fictional rural Kentucky town of Roma. Education Upon graduating High School, Jones attended Western Kentucky University to study journalism. However, Jones ended up transferring to the University of Kentucky after a year to study English, later graduating with Bachelor of Arts. Following her graduation from the University of Kentucky, Jones received a Master of Fine Arts from Ohio State University. Writing Books In 2009, Jones released her first book, ''Girl Trouble'', a series of short stories, many of which were featured in various publications including New Stories from the South (2007 and 2008) and in Best American Mystery Stories 2008. Her second book, ''The Next Time You See Me'' was released in 2013 to critical p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amy Greene
Amy Elizabeth Greene (born October 2, 1975) is an American novelist. Her debut novel, ''Bloodroot'', was a national bestseller. Her second novel, ''Long Man'', was published in March 2014. She is also a contributor to '' The'' ''New York Times'' among other publications. Biography Greene was born Amy Elizabeth Oler in Morristown, Tennessee and grew up in Whitesburg, Tennessee, in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains. She received a bachelor's degree from Vermont College in 2008. In 2011 she was awarded the Weatherford Award for Fiction at Berea College. In 2014 her second novel Long Man won the Willie Morris Award for Southern Literature. It was a Washington Post Top Book of 2014 and was named one of the Minneapolis Star Tribune's 10 Favorite Books of 2014. Writing Greene's first novel, ''Bloodroot'', was published in 2010. It was a ''New York Times'' and national bestseller, garnering praise from such publications as '' USA Today'', ''The New York Times'', '' Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crystal Wilkinson
Crystal E. Wilkinson is an African-American feminist writer from Kentucky, and proponent of the Affrilachian Poet movement. She is the winner of a 2022 NAACP Image Award, a 2020 winner of the USA Fellow of Creative Writing, and a 2021 O. Henry Prize winner. She teaches at the University of Kentucky. Her work has primarily been in involving the stories of Black women and communities in the Appalachian and rural Southern canon. She was appointed Poet Laureate of Kentucky 2021. Early life and education Born in Hamilton, Ohio, Crystal Wilkinson was brought to her grandparents' farm in Indian Creek, Kentucky (about three miles east of Middleburg, Kentucky), when she was six weeks old. They were the only African-American family in the area. Like many farmers in Appalachia, Silas Wilkinson grew cash crops of tobacco and corn and produced sorghum molasses; and, given the few jobs available for African-American women in eastern Kentucky, Christine Wilkinson cleaned and cooked in the home ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Silas House
Silas Dwane House (born August 7, 1971) is an American writer best known for his novels. He is also a music journalist, environmental activist, and columnist. House's fiction is known for its attention to the natural world, working class characters, and the plight of the rural place and rural people. House is known as a representative for LGBTQ Appalachians and Southerners and is certainly among the most visible LGBTQ people associated with rural America. Early life and education House was born in Corbin, Kentucky and grew up in nearby rural Lily, Laurel County, Kentucky, but he also spent much of his childhood in nearby Leslie County, Kentucky, which he has cited as the basis for the fictional Crow County, which serves as the setting for his first three novels. He has degrees from Eastern Kentucky University (BA in English with emphasis on American literature), and from Spalding University (Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing). In 2000, House was chosen, along with since-p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frank X Walker
Frank X Walker (born June 11, 1961) is an African-American poet from Danville, Kentucky. Walker coined the word "Affrilachia", signifying the importance of the African-American presence in Appalachia: the "new word ... spoke to the union of Appalachian identity and the region's African-American culture and history". He is a Professor in the English department at the University of Kentucky and was the Poet Laureate of Kentucky from 2013-2015. Biography Walker was born Frank Walker, Jr., in Danville, Kentucky, the second of eleven children. He grew up in Danville, where the family lived in public housing projects. He was an avid reader as a child. Walker describes himself as both a "nerd" and an athlete in his teenage years. At Danville High School (Kentucky), Danville High School, he played American football, football on the school team, was a member of several clubs, and was twice elected class president. He was recruited to attend the University of Kentucky in engineering, but ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Ella Lyon
George Ella Lyon (born April 25, 1949, in Harlan, Kentucky) is an American author from Kentucky, who has published in many genres, including picture books, poetry, juvenile novels, and articles. Biography George Ella Lyon was born April 25, 1949, in Harlan, Kentucky, a coal mining town in southeastern Kentucky, to Robert Vernon, Jr. and Gladys (nee Fowler) Hoskins. She married Stephen C. Lyon, a musician, on June 3, 1972, and has since had two children with him. Lyon received a Bachelor of Arts from Centre College in Kentucky in 1971, a Master of Arts from the University of Arkansas in 1972, and a Doctor of Philosophy from Indiana University--Bloomington in 1978. In 1983, Lyon published her first writing, a poetry collection called ''Mountain''. Aside from publishing, she also taught writing at a number of colleges, including the University of Kentucky, Centre College, Transylvania University, and Radford University. She has also acted as an executive committee member ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lee Smith (fiction Author)
Lee Smith (born November 1, 1944) is an American fiction author who typically incorporates much of her background from the Southeastern United States in her works. She has received writing awards, such as the O. Henry Award, the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Fiction, the North Carolina Award for Literature, and, in April 2013, was the first recipient of Mercer University's Sidney Lanier Prize for Southern Literature. Her novel ''The Last Girls'' was listed on the ''New York Times'' bestseller's list and won the Southern Book Critics Circle Award. ''Mrs Darcy and the Blue-Eyed Stranger'', a collection of new and selected stories, was published in 2010. Early life and education Smith was born in 1944 in Grundy, Virginia, a small coal-mining town in the Appalachian Mountains, less than 10 miles from the Kentucky border. The Smith home sat on Main Street, and the Levisa Fork River ran just behind it. Her mother, Gig, was a college graduate who had come to Grund ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mark Powell (novelist)
Mark Powell (born 1976) is an American novelist. He is the author of six novels, most recently ''Small Treasons'' and ''Firebird''. A highly decorated author, he has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Breadloaf Writers' Conference, as well as two Fulbright Fellowships. Educated at The Citadel, The University of South Carolina, and Yale Divinity School, Powell teaches in the English Department at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. He repeatedly serves as the fiction workshop leader for the Hindman Settlement School's Appalachian Writers Workshop and the Mountain Heritage Literary Festival at Lincoln Memorial University. Powell's early work has established him in the southern Appalachian tradition alongside writers such as Pamela Duncan, Silas House and Ron Rash. His recent fiction is more global in scope, in the vein of Robert Stone and Bob Shacochis. Novels Prodigals Fifteen-year-old Ernest Cobb has fled his South Carol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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