2021 Kentucky Book Festival

Kentucky Book Festival

PROUD PARTNER & 2021 HOST OF THE KENTUCKY BOOK FESTIVAL!

AUTHOR EVENTS LOCAL GIFTS STORY TIMES CASUAL DINING

In-person events are subject to change due to the ongoing pandemic. Always check our website, kybookfestival.org, for information including the latest updates.

Hello, Kentucky Monthly reader! Welcome to the 2021 Kentucky Book Festival! Kentucky Humanities is proud to bring this event to booklovers from Kentucky and beyond, and we’re glad to publish the festival catalog for the first time in Kentucky Monthly magazine. This November, the festival marks its 40th anniversary and is offering a mix of virtual and in-person weekday events November 1-5, culminating in a daylong celebration at Joseph-Beth Booksellers on Saturday, November 6. On Saturday, we’ll feature 140 authors who’ll sign books, with many authors participating in panel discussions or conducting writing workshops and craft discussions. This year, many of Saturday’s scheduled activities will also be made available to view virtually, so you can choose to join us in-person or from home.

We’re grateful to the sponsors and partners who make the Kentucky Book Festival possible, including Joseph-Beth Booksellers; Elsa Heisel Sule Foundation; Kosair Charities’

KENTUCKY HUMANITIES

Face It® Movement; a gift on behalf of Spalding University and Lindsey Wilson College; Hardscuffle, Inc.; First Southern National Bank; University of Kentucky; PNC Bank; Campbellsville University; Central Bank; UK HealthCare; Kentucky Tourism, Arts & Heritage Cabinet; Kim Edwards Charitable Foundation; Baird Private Wealth Management; Wildcat Moving; AARP Kentucky; Transylvania University; Berea College; Traditional Bank; UK College of Arts and Sciences Department of History; Community Trust® and Investment Company; Studio46 Media; Bluegrass Learning Solutions; WEKU; Commerce Lexington; Kentucky Monthly; WUKY; and Centre College.

We hope you’ll join us in celebrating 40 years of all things bookish in the Bluegrass!

Sincerely,

Sara V. Woods DIRECTOR, KENTUCKY BOOK FESTIVAL

Kentucky Humanities is an independent, nonprofit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities in Washington, D.C. Kentucky Humanities is supported by the National Endowment and by private contributions. In addition to producing the Kentucky Book Festival, Kentucky Humanities sponsors PRIME TIME Family Reading Time®, offers Kentucky Chautauqua® and Speakers Bureau programs, hosts Smithsonian traveling exhibits throughout the state, publishes Kentucky Humanities magazine, and awards grants for humanities programs. Views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the NEH or Kentucky Humanities board and staff. Learn more at kybookfestival.org

PRE-SCHOOL TO K-2 RESOURCES

BAXTER’S CORNER BOOKS

BUILDING CHARACTER IS CHILD’S PLAY®

Gerome’s Rainbow

They all learned a lesson, and not just about pride.

By Stephanie Logsdon

Illustrations M.E.B. Stottmann

Thank you to the staff & volunteers who make this event possible! We appreciate your time and support in making the 2021 Kentucky Book Festival a success.

KENTUCKY BOOK FESTIVAL COMMITTEE

Cindy Cline Lexington

Ellen Hellard Versailles

Children’s Picture Book: Fiction 978-1938647307 | $19.95 | Hardcover

“Positive message for all ages. Gerome’s Rainbow is a book that needs to be in every child’s library and/or classroom. The message behind the book is equality and how everyone is different and how that is seen as a beautiful thing.”

Karen Watson, Educator

“They write and illustrate the most wonderful children’s books designed to help both caregivers and children navigate life’s struggles in a healthy way. The books help caregivers engage children in conversations about what they’ve learned and how they can apply the main message to their lives.”

Benjamin Gies, Policy and Advocacy Director Kentucky Youth Advocates

HOW TO ORDER

Baxter’s Corner | Ingram Wholesale

Publisher Note

Baxter’s Corner designs its books to help navigate the constantly changing, dynamic messages of life in playful ways.

Mary Lynn Collins Frankfort

Teresa Collins Lawrenceburg

Judith Ann Gibbons Versailles

Tom Midkiff Frankfort

Diana Munson Frankfort

Lynda Sherrard Frankfort

KENTUCKY HUMANITIES BOARD OF DIRECTORS

CHAIR

Judy L. Rhoads, Ph.D. Madisonville

VICE CHAIR

John David Preston, JD Paintsville

TREASURER

Martha F. Clark, CPA West Liberty

SECRETARY

Charles W. Boteler, JD Louisville

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEMBER

John P. Ernst, Ph.D. Morehead

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEMBER Lois Mateus Harrodsburg

Chelsea Brislin, Ph.D. Lexington

Mary Donna Broz Lexington

Brian Clardy, Ph.D. Murray

Jennifer Cramer, Ph.D. Lexington

KENTUCKY HUMANITIES STAFF

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Bill Goodman

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR

Kathleen Pool

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR/EDITOR, KENTUCKY HUMANITIES

Marianne Stoess

CHAUTAUQUA & SPEAKERS

BUREAU COORDINATOR/ ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT

Zoe Kaylor

Paula E. Cunningham Kuttawa

Selena Sanderfer Doss, Ph.D. Bowling Green

Clarence Glover Louisville

Betty Sue Griffin, Ed.D. Frankfort

Catha Hannah Louisville

Ellen Hellard Versailles

Tom Owen, Ph.D. Louisville

Penelope Peavler Louisville

Ronald G. Sheffer, JD Louisville

Maddie Shepard Louisville

Hope Wilden, CPFA Louisville

Bobbie Ann Wrinkle Paducah

FISCAL OFFICER

Gladys Thompson

KENTUCKY BOOK FESTIVAL DIRECTOR AND SPECIAL PROJECTS COORDINATOR

Sara Volpi Woods

EVENT PRODUCTION/ LOGISTICS MANAGER

Julie Klier

By

L.S.V. Baker

Stottmann

Why Stop for Tajo? is an action-packed, rhyming story about respecting authority which focuses on why we have rules, even at home.

“They write and illustrate the most wonderful children’s books designed to help both caregivers and children navigate life’s struggles in a healthy way. The books help caregivers engage children in conversations about what they’ve learned and how they can apply the main message to their lives.”

Benjamin Gies, Policy and Advocacy Director Kentucky Youth Advocates

Corner | Ingram Wholesale

Publisher Note Baxter’s Corner stories entertain children while serving as a resource as parents teach their kids to be emotionally and spiritually healthy.

FRIDAY: 9 A.M.-1 P.M.

9 A.M.-3 P.M.

SCHOOLDAYS

The Kentucky Book Festival hosts the School Days program, providing author visits and free books to under-served schools across Kentucky. This Fall, in-person and virtual author visits are scheduled with these Authors/Illustrators:

SPONSORS

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT SCHOOL DAYS OR TO APPLY FOR A PROGRAM AT YOUR SCHOOL, VISIT KYBOOKFESTIVAL.ORG.

Learn how you can put your time, knowledge and talent to use volunteering with AARP in Kentucky. Help make the communities where you live, work and play the best they can be while engaging with others who share your passion for service.

Get to know us at aarp.org/ky.

In Spring 2021, thanks to support from the Elsa Heisel Sule Foundation, the Kosair Charities’ Face It® Movement, and Thomas H. Appleton, Jr, we facilitated virtual School Days programs with authors Amanda Driscoll, Shawn Pryor, and Jessica Young in 17 schools, with nearly 2,000 free books distributed to students.

WILL HILLENBRAND

SHAWN PRYOR

VASHTI HARRISON

JESSICA YOUNG AMANDA DRISCOLL

1

NOVEMBER 2021 FESTIVAL EVENTS

NOV 1 An Evening with Jason Reynolds

7:00 PM –8:00 PM

Join Jason Reynolds, the National Ambassador of Young People’s Literature, as he discusses his writing career and latest book, Stuntboy, in the Meantime, with author Court Stevens.

NOV 2 Literary Luncheon with Ouita Michel

12:00 PM –1:30 PM AT FASIG TIPTON

This in-person event is a one-of-a-kind experience combining elements of the literary and culinary worlds. We’re excited to work directly with Chef Ouita Michel to craft a menu from her first published cookbook, Just A Few Miles South. Thanks to Central Bank and Baird Private Wealth Management for sponsoring this event.

TICKET REQUIRED

Tickets are $20.00 and include a copy of Stuntboy, in the Meantime, signed bookplate, tax, shipping & handling.

NOV 3 Cocktails and Conversation featuring authors Margaret Verble and Kim Edwards

7:00 PM–9:00 PM AT JOSEPH-BETH BOOKSELLERS

Author Margaret Verble’s new book, When Two Feathers Fell From the Sky, is an unforgettable and irresistible tale of exotic animals, lingering spirits, and unexpected friendship. Thanks to our sponsor, Transylvania University

NOV 4 Books & Brews Trivia

7:00 PM AT GOODWOOD LEXINGTON

Think you know books? Rally a team for this lively literary competition and find out!

NOV 5 Commerce Lexington Spotlight Breakfast featuring James Hardymon & Terry L. Birdwhistell

DETAILS TBA. CHECK KYBOOKFESTIVAL.ORG FOR REGULAR UPDATES.

In partnership with Commerce Lexington, businessman James Hardymon will discuss his memoir, Engineering Corporate Success, with editor Terry Birdwhistell. Hardymon, a respected businessman who helped build corporations as a CEO, learned the ropes of Wall Street, and interacted with US presidents and congressional leaders, acquired a keen understanding of corporate America.

NOV 6 Final Festival Day featuring 140 Authors

10:00 AM–6:30 PM AT JOSEPH-BETH BOOKSELLERS, LEXINGTON

The Kentucky Book Festival culminates in a daylong, in-person celebration at Joseph-Beth featuring 140 authors! Among those slated to attend are Crystal Wilkinson, Elin Hilderbrand, H. W. Brands, Matthew Pearl, Sam Quinones, W. Bruce Cameron, Silas House, and more! Meet authors and browse thousands of books in the Signing Gallery or join the audience for various programs throughout the day, including craft discussions, a writing workshop, and keynotes.

TICKET REQUIRED

Tickets are $55.00 and include lunch, a copy of Just a Few Miles South, tax & handling.

TICKET REQUIRED

Tickets are $45.00 and include a signature cocktail, hors d’oeuvres, a copy of When Two Feathers Fell from the Sky, tax & handling.

This event is free and open to the public.

Ticket information is forthcoming at commercelexington.org.

Many sessions will be livestreamed for ease of access. The lineup, schedule, and registration information can be found at kybookfestival.org. Scan this code to get started! 2 4 5 6

FOR

CRYSTAL WILKINSON SILAS HOUSE BRIAN KILMEADE ELIN HILDERBRAND

RE GI ST ER

Since 1903, the Kentucky Historical Society's awardwinning scholarly publication.

Members of KHS enjoy FREE access to the Register on Project MUSE

Learn more: history ky gov

On Saturday, November 6 at Joseph-Beth Booksellers, along with upwards of 140 authors signing books, programs will occur in two areas on-site. Programs will occur every hour starting at 10:30 AM, with the last session beginning at 5:30 PM. For information on authors listed below, check the Author Lineup beginning on page 23. The schedule is subject to change. Always check kybookfestival.org for the latest information.

UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY MAIN STAGE

10:30 AM Brian Kilmeade discusses The President and the Freedom Fighter: Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and Their Battle to Save America’s Soul

11:30 AM Amy McGrath in conversation with Kathy Stearman

12:30 PM H. W. Brands and Peter S. Canellos in conversation with Dr. Lindsay M. Chervinsky

1:30 PM Matthew Pearl presents The Taking of Jemima Boone: Colonial Settlers, Tribal Nations, and the Kidnap That Shaped America

2:30 PM Crystal Wilkinson and Frank X Walker in conversation with Jeremy Paden

3:30 PM Silas House in conversation with Jayne Moore Waldrop and Marianne Worthington

4:30 PM Kimmery Martin presents “An Insider’s Look at the Practice of Medicine: Writing a Pandemic Book BEFORE a Pandemic”

5:30 PM Elin Hilderbrand in conversation with Dianna Rostad

UK HEALTHCARE WRITER’S ROOM

10:30 AM W. Bruce Cameron in conversation with Kristin O’Donnell Tubb

11:30 AM Michael Rectenwald and Wilfred Reilly in conversation with Kylie Carlino of Regnery Publishing

12:30 PM Writing Workshop “Family Stories: Evoking Emotion in Your Characters”: Susan Beckham Zurenda, author of Bells for Eli

1:30 PM Craft Discussion “Writing Southern Historical Fiction”: Angela Jackson-Brown and Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle in conversation with Michael A. Almond

2:30 PM Craft Discussion “Writing Through Grief” with Maryanne O’Hara and author Kim Edwards

3:30 PM Grady Hendrix presents: “The History of Murder Books”

4:30 PM “Building a Writing Community,” with Lisa Haneberg, a founding board member of the Lexington Writer’s Room (additional speakers forthcoming)

5:30 PM “How to Become a Self-Publishing Superstar” Julian Thomas and Alisha Klapheke in conversation with editor Ericka McIntyre

Carve out space in your life for your writing. At our lowresidency MFA in Writing program, our innovative curriculum teaches you to take risks as you master your genre. Explore across genres, choose your own pace of study, and travel abroad, if you like.

& YA

KENTUCKY AUTHOR Q

2021 AUTHORS

Authors will sign books at various locations within JosephBeth Booksellers. Most authors will be seated downstairs on the lower level with access via escalator and elevator. Maps will be provided day-of.

CHILDREN’S

MARK WAYNE ADAMS Q

F Stick Horse

Derby

Mark promotes reading and writing via speaking engagements, book signings, and participation in book events. The Kentucky Derby inspired Mark’s love of horses and racing out in “the sticks.” Mounted on a stick horse, his young heart and bare feet pounded dirt trails across his old Kentucky home.

NANCY KELLY ALLEN Q

F Cowboy Jesse

LEE BACON

Nancy has written more than 50 books. She and her husband live in the log house where she grew up in the mountains of Kentucky. Cowboy Jesse is a picture book for ages 2-7. A counting book from one to ten and back again, it’s also about the value of friendship.

P. ANASTASIA Q

F Morning Puppa

P. Anastasia resides in Kentucky with her husband and fur-babies. She has written nine young adult novels and lends her voice to radio, television, and audiobook recordings across the globe. In Morning Puppa, follow an adorable fourfooted Aussie on an adventure filled with tasty treats and a BIG surprise.

Thanks

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 6

10:00 AM–6:30 PM signing times may vary Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Lexington, KY

AUTHORS LISTED ALPHABETICALLY BY LAST NAME IN THESE CATEGORIES:

F Children’s, Middle Grade PAGES 23–27

F Young Adult, PAGES 27

F Fiction, PAGES 28–33

F Poetry, PAGES 33–34

F Nonfiction, PAGES 34–39

F Imaginary

Lee, a Texas native, enjoys writing books for young people about topics they connect to. Imaginary, an inventive story of friendship, loss, and growing up, is the story of a boy and his imaginary friend— as told by the imaginary friend.

LESLEY A. J. BAUMANN

F J is for Justify

Lesley is a graphic designer and nationally known animal portrait artist from Dayton, Ohio. J is for Justify is an alphabet book inspired by the 13th Triple Crown winner and features 26 famous Thoroughbred racehorses.

ARTIE BENNETT

F The True Story of Zippy Chippy: The Little Horse That Couldn’t

Artie is an executive copy editor by day and a writer of children’s books by night. He is the author of an inspiring picturebook biography of racehorse Zippy

Chippy. With its message of hope, determination, and humor, it is a perfect storybook for our times.

JENNIFER R. CHAMBERS Q

F Macie Meets Her New Teacher

Dr. Chambers is the Director of the Literacy Specialist Program and a Professor of Literacy at the University of the Cumberlands in Williamsburg, Kentucky. The story: Macie is going to school for the first time and is very anxious to meet her new teacher.

EVELYN B. CHRISTENSEN & SUSAN E. CHRISTENSEN Q

F The Amazing Brain Book for Kids

Evelyn is an educator who loves to create resources to make learning fun. The Amazing Brain Book offers brain games, logic puzzles, and fun facts for ages 4-7 and was co-authored with her daughter, Susan.

LISA COLODNY Q

F Jericho Alley

Dr. Colodny grew up in the rural countryside of Kentucky surrounded by an eclectic group of family and friends. Jericho Alley is the story of a kind-hearted dog, Jello, who lives there with his human friend, Sam.

KENTUCKY HUMANITIES

The Elsa Heisel Sule Foundation is committed to supporting the Kentucky Humanities to keep the history and heritage of Kentucky alive in the hearts and minds of today’s youth.

Through her parents’ examples and encouragement, Elsa developed lifelong passions for theater, education and the arts. She loved to tell a good story and developed her own radio program called “Elsa’s Street.”

The Kentucky Humanities embodies many of the passions that motivated Elsa. Her Foundation continues her legacy and is proud to support the outreach programs of the Humanities by offering grants for the Chautauqua program for school children, in eight of Kentucky’s northern counties.

SANTIAGO

SANTA CRUZ Q

F Tony’s Tiny Arms

Santiago was born and raised in Louisville, where he lives with his wife, Joanne, and daughter Penelope. Tony’s Tiny Arms is the story of a T-Rex named Tony. His arms are tiny, and he wants to know why!

DEBBIE DADEY Q

F Mystery at the Haunted Museum

Debbie grew up in Kentucky and now lives in a log cabin in the Smoky Mountains with her husband and a rescued greyhound. She is the author and co-author of 178 books. In her latest, Shelly’s pizza party gets out of hand with too many planners!

AMANDA DRISCOLL Q

F Little Grump Truck

Amanda is a children’s book writer and illustrator as well as a graphic designer. She was born and raised in Louisville and currently resides in Fisherville. Little Grump Truck is a bright, playful story that shows kids how meditation and mindfulness can banish even the most serious case of the grumpies.

LINDSEY DUGA

F Ghost in the Headlights

Lindsey is a young adult and middlegrade author from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In this modern-day retelling of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” an angry ghost haunts a small-town road in search of revenge.

ALICE FAYE DUNCAN ( VIRTUAL )

F Just Like a Mama

Alice writes picture books to help children know about important moments from American history. She lives in Memphis, Tennessee, where, at a young age, her mother nurtured her love for writing with reams of paper, packs of pens, and poetry books.

SUSAN EADDY (ILLUS.)

F Sir Drake the Brave

Susan writes picture books and plays with clay in her attic studio. Sir Drake the Brave helps children see the great strength of being gentle and welcoming to others, including those whom they see as different than themselves.

VASHTI HARRISON (ILLUS.) ( VIRTUAL )

F Hello, Star

Vashti is the No. 1 New York Times bestselling author-illustrator of Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History, among others. Hello, Star (written by Stephanie V.W. Lucianovic) is an illustrated tribute to stars, space, and science that celebrates how a small act of compassion can flourish into a life full of meaning and wonder.

KATHRYN HOLMES

F Tally Tuttle Turns Into A Turtle

Kathryn grew up in Tennessee and now lives in Brooklyn with her family. She is the author of several young adult novels, including The Distance Between. The start of a humorous and heartfelt series, Tally Tuttle Turns Into a Turtle is about a second-grade class in which each student turns into an animal for a day.

PRIYA HUQ

F Piece by Piece: The Story of Nisrin’s Hijab

Priya is a Bangladeshi-American cartoonist from Austin, Texas. Piece by Piece, an original graphic novel about growing up and choosing your own path even if it leads you to a different place than you expected, is based upon the author’s own experiences as a Bangladeshi-American dealing with hate

and racism while growing up after 9/11.

LISA KATZENBERGER

F It Will Be Ok: A Story of Empathy, Kindness, and Friendship

Lisa lives near Chicago with her family in a 100-year-old Victorian house with sloping hardwood floors and the tiniest bathroom you’ve ever seen. It Will Be Ok shows us that friendship, kindness, and empathy help us face our fears no matter how silly they may seem.

REBECCA SUTER LINDSAY Q

F The Peacemakers

Rebecca holds a M.Ed. and operated Private Tutoring Services for 35 years. In The Peacemakers, Manny Weaver, a Mennonite boy living in Virginia at the beginning of the Civil War, wants to prevent his father and uncle from being forced to join the Confederate Army. That’s when his troubles begin.

ANNELOUISE MAHONEY

F Julius and Macy:

A Very Brave Night

Annelouise, an author-illustrator, lives in Southern California with her family. Julius and Macy, her first book, is an enchanting woodland tale about bravery and friendship. With its endearing characters, this gently told story reminds us that we each have courage within us, and that kindness can make all the difference.

ROBIN NEWMAN

F Don’t Call Me Fuzzybutt!

Author of the award-winning Wilcox & Griswold mystery series, Robin was a practicing attorney and legal editor, but she now prefers to write about witches, mice, pigs, bears, and peacocks. In Don’t Call Me Fuzzybutt!, Bear turns grizzly when he doesn’t get his much-needed 243½ days of sleep!

ONE OF THE TOP SCHOOLS IN THE NATION.

F Little Miss Grubby Toes Eats

Too Much Candy!

Transylvania will teach you to ask the deep questions of the world and seek out creative ways to find answers. transy.edu

When people pull together, every day is a giant leap forward.

Eddie is a retired history teacher who now writes awardwinning books, including the Little Miss Grubby Toes series, illustrated by Mark Wayne Adams. Eddie is a world traveler who enjoys bicycling, horseback riding, and swimming. He and his wife, Mary, now live in Hancock County, Kentucky.

SHAWN PRYOR Q

F Free Throw Contest

Shawn’s work includes the middle-grade graphic novel series Cash & Carrie, the sports graphic novel Force, and several books for the Jake Maddox Sports and Adventure series and the Kids Sports series. He enjoys reading, cooking, listening to music, and talking about why Zack from the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers is the greatest Black superhero of all time.

GIN NOON SPAULDING Q

F No Kiss–No Hug

Gin is an author, teacher, speaker, and mom who helps families and organizations understand, learn tools of accommodation, and find true acceptance for children with sensory issues. She lives with her husband and their whiz-kid daughter, Maleah “Li-Li” Spaulding—the star of The Adventures of Li-Li series.

JESSE STUART Q

F Bluetick Pig

Jesse Stuart (1906-1984) was a noted author, educator, lecturer, world traveler, farmer, and environmentalist. A prolific writer, he served as Kentucky’s Poet Laureate in 1954-55. His reprinted work is represented at the Kentucky Book Festival by Dr. Cathy Roberts. Bluetick Pig is the ninth book in his junior book series.

KRISTIN O’DONNELL TUBB

F Luna Howls at the Moon

Kristin is the author of many middle-grade books, including The Story Collector, The Story Seeker , and A Dog Like Daisy. This novel is told from the point of view of Luna, a Labrador therapy dog who accompanies her group therapy kids when they set off on an adventure.

You’ve shown us that when we work together toward a common goal, we make progress day after day. Thank you, Kentucky Humanities Council.

MARY REAVES UHLES (ILLUS.)

F Let’s Pop, Pop, Popcorn!

Mary has created illustrations for numerous books and magazines, such as A Tuba Christmas. She lives with her family in Nashville. Let’s Pop, Pop, Popcorn! offers a fun introduction to the process of creating popcorn that includes scientific facts and activities.

S. G. WILSON Q

F

Me vs. the Multiverse:

Enough About Me

S.G. grew up in Kentucky and now writes stuff in Austin, Texas, where he lives with his family. He’s worked as a magazine writer and editor and hosts a podcast called This Week

in the Multiverse. In Me vs. the Multiverse, the “Mes” are back in this hilarious book from the sci-fi comedy series.

JESSICA YOUNG

F I’ll Meet You in Your Dreams

Jessica grew up in Ontario, Canada. When she’s not making up stories, she loves making art with kids. Her many books include the Fairylight Friends and Haggis and Tank series. I’ll Meet You in Your Dreams is a poetic and tender story celebrating the parent-child bond in its many forms.

YOUNG ADULT

DAVID ARNOLD Q

F The Electric Kingdom

Arnold is the New York Times bestselling author of Mosquitoland and The Strange Fascinations of Noah Hypnotik, among other titles. He lives in Lexington with his family. The Electric Kingdom is his most ambitious novel to date—a genresmashing story of survival, hope, and love amid a ravaged earth.

CINDA WILLIAMS CHIMA

F Deathcaster

Chima’s books include the Seven Realms and the Heir Chronicles series. Her next project marries Norse mythology and witchcraft with her usual mingle of magic, swordplay, romance, and cut-throat politics. Deathcaster is the final installment of the Shattered Realms series.

BROOKE LAUREN DAVIS Q

F The Hollow Inside

Davis grew up in Ohio and now lives in Louisville, where she divides her time between working as an indie bookseller and dreaming up stories about small towns with big secrets. The Hollow Inside , her debut, is a smart, gripping, and twisty YA novel about a girl seeking to reveal the truth about her mother and herself.

ALISHA KLAPHEKE

F Enchanting the

Elven Mage

Klapheke wants to infuse readers’ lives with magic, far-flung fantasy settings, and romance. Her new book, a Sleeping Beauty-inspired fantasy romance perfect for fans of Serpent and Dove and A Court of Thorns and Roses series, will keep you turning pages all night!

SHANNON SCHUREN

F Where Echoes Lie

Schuren is the author of The Virtue of Sin and Where Echoes Lie, an eerie thriller in which a teenage girl must solve the mystery of the ghost bride that has haunted her community in rural Kentucky for more than a century. Schuren and her family live in Wisconsin.

COURT STEVENS Q

F The June Boys

Stevens grew up in the small-town South. She writes coming-of-truth fiction and is the community outreach manager for the Warren County Public Library in Kentucky. Her new book, The June Boys, is a gripping, emotional story of small towns, rumors, and 13 missing boys.

HEATHER TRUETT

F Kiss and Repeat

Truett is an MFA candidate at the University of Memphis. In her debut novel, Kiss and Repeat, a teen uses a scientific method drilled into him by his scientist father to begin a kissing experiment. Truett, a poetry editor for The Pinch, is active in the #actuallyautistic community.

SNOWY OWL FOUNDATION, INC.

Nana Lampton

PRE-SCHOOL TO K-2 RESOURCES

BAXTER’S CORNER BOOKS

BUILDING CHARACTER IS CHILD’S PLAY®

Sideways Fred

Fred the tadpole’s left leg was not very strong!

By Stephanie Logsdon Illustrations M.E.B. Stottmann

Children’s Picture Book: Fiction

978-1938647147 | $18.93 | Hardcover 978-1938647161 | $14.95 | Softcover

Sideways Fred is an upbeat, rhyming story about determination which focuses on keeping your eye on the ball.

I gave my daughter a set of books from Baxter’s Corner. (She has three masters’ degrees, Vanderbilt, George Mason, and Boston University, this last one in childhood education.) “They are awesome”, she loved the text, loved the illustrations, and said the two 7-year-old daughters read them in one sitting. “They loved them!”

John D, North Myrtle Beach, SC

HOW TO ORDER

Baxter’s Corner | Ingram Wholesale

Publisher Note

Baxter’s Corner books features a section parents can use as a fun playful resource to transform the subject into conversations with a child.

FICTION

MICHAEL A. ALMOND

F The Tannery

A retired international business attorney, Almond is an avid reader of Southern history and literature, who lives with his wife in North Carolina. The Tannery, his debut novel, reflects issues prominent in today’s headlines that drive the narrative to its dramatic and surprising conclusion.

LANA K.W. AUSTIN Q

F Like Light, Like Music

Austin was raised in rural Kentucky. In Like Light, Like Music, Emme McLean is back in Red River, Kentucky, using her skills as a journalist to prove that her cousin did not kill her husband and to find out what is terrifying the town after many of its women went half-mad on the same night.

DAVID BELL Q

F Kill All Your Darlings

Bell is a bestselling, award-winning author whose work has been translated into multiple foreign languages. He’s currently a professor of English at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Kentucky. In his new novel, when a student disappears and is presumed dead, her professor passes off her manuscript as his own—only to discover it implicates him in an unsolved murder.

SUSAN BELL & ELAINE MUNSCH (EDS.) Q

F Mystery With a Splash of Bourbon

Bell was born in coastal California but now calls Louisville home. She is co-editor with Elaine Munsch of the crime story anthology Mystery With a Splash of Bourbon, which includes stories all fermented in the history and culture of Kentucky bourbon. Munsch, a bookseller for more than 40 years, has made Louisville her home for decades.

GWENDA BOND Q

F Not Your Average Hot Guy

Bond is the New York Times bestselling author of many novels, including the Lois Lane and Cirque American trilogies. She lives in Lexington. Her latest book is a paranormal romantic comedy about two people falling in love while the fate of the world rests on their shoulders. Baxter’s Corner Books baxterscorner.com info@baxterscorner.com

LAUREN H. BRANDENBURG

F The Marriage of Innis Wilkinson

Brandenburg is an author who happily blurs the lines between traditional genres in both middle-grade and cozy fiction. She lives with her family near Nashville. In her new book, a town secret is uncovered that involves a murder, an actor with a severe case of kleptomania, and a mysterious marriage.

HALLEE BRIDGEMAN Q

F Alexandra’s Appeal

With nearly a million book sales, Bridgeman is a bestselling Christian author who writes action-packed romantic suspense focusing on realistic characters who face real-world problems. In her new book, Alex—scorned, penniless, and pregnant— must fight for faith, family, and love.

WESLEY BROWNE Q

F Hillbilly Hustle

Browne is an attorney and restaurant owner who lives with his family in Madison County, Kentucky. Hillbilly Hustle, his debut novel, follows Knox Thompson, who thinks he’s working a hustle, but it’s a hustle that’s working him.

CARRIE CALLAGHAN

F Salt the Snow

Callaghan is the author of historical novels A Light of Her Own and Salt the Snow, a vivid and impeccably researched tale of a woman ahead of her time, looking for her true calling in life and love. Callaghan lives in Maryland with her family.

W. BRUCE CAMERON

F A Dog’s Courage: A Dog’s Way Home Novel

Cameron is the bestselling author of A Dog’s Purpose, A Dog’s Way Home, A Dog’s Journey (all now major motion pictures), and many other books. He lives in California. A Dog’s Courage is a moving tale of loyalty and the constant heart of one devoted dog— brought vividly to life with a keen understanding of what makes all dogs so special.

ANNETTE SAUNOOKE CLAPSADDLE

F Even as We Breathe

Clapsaddle, an enrolled member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), holds degrees from Yale University and the College of William and Mary. Her debut novel, Even as We Breathe, explores the immutable nature of the human spirit and the idea that physical existence, with all its strife and injustice, will not be humanity’s lasting legacy.

WHITNEY COLLINS Q

F Big Bad

Collins is the author of the short story collection, Big Bad, which won the 2019 Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction. Part domestic horror, part flyover gothic, the book serves up realworld predicaments in unremarkable places, all with Collins’ heart-wrenching flavor of magical realism.

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ANN H. GABHART

Q

F Along a Storied Trail

Gabhart has published 35 books, with more stories on the way. She likes wrapping her stories around interesting historical times and events in her home state of Kentucky. In Along a Storied Trail, set during the Great Depression, readers will traverse the rough trails of eastern Kentucky with packhorse librarian Tansy Calhoun.

ROBERT GIPE Q

F Pop: An Illustrated Novel

Gipe won the 2015 Weatherford Award for his first novel, Trampoline. He resides in Harlan County, Kentucky. Pop, his third novel, shows Appalachia as full of clear-eyed, caring, creative, and complicated people struggling to hang on to what is best about their world and reject what is not.

PAUL GRINER Q

F The Book of Otto and Liam

Griner is the author of two short story

collections and several novels, including The German Woman. He teaches writing and literature at the University of Louisville. The Book of Otto and Liam is a suspenseful, edge-of-your-seat read and, at the same time, it is a meditation on the forms evil can take.

LISA HANEBERG Q

F Stiff Lizard: A Spy Shop Mystery

Haneberg is the author of the Spy Shop Mysteries series and more than a dozen nonfiction books. She lives with her husband and dog in Lexington. In Stiff Lizard, Rodent Roger, a popular Galveston Island exterminator, goes missing the day after he tells Xena about a concerning uptick in green iguana sightings on the island.

GRADY HENDRIX

F The Final Girl Support Group

Hendrix is the New York Times bestselling author of The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, among other books. His latest novel, The Final Girl Support Group, is

a fast-paced, thrilling horror novel that follows a group of heroines to die for.

ELIN HILDERBRAND

F The Paradise Trilogy

Hilderbrand is a mother, fashionista, jogger, explorer, foodie, and grateful seven-year breast cancer survivor. Golden Girl, her 27th novel, is a No. 1 New York Times bestseller. Hilderbrand’s Paradise novels—Winter in Paradise, What Happens in Paradise, and Troubles in Paradise—tell the story of a woman who must start anew after her idyllic life is shattered by her husband’s death in a helicopter crash in the Caribbean.

SILAS

HOUSE Q

F Clay’s Quilt (20th anniversary edition)

House is The New York Times bestselling author of six novels, one book of creative nonfiction, and three plays. In Clay’s Quilt, now a touchstone for his many fans, he takes us to Free Creek, Kentucky, where a motherless young man forges his path to adulthood surrounded by ancient mountains and his blood relatives and adopted kin.

AN UNCOMMON SPIRIT

At the University of Kentucky, students are at the center of all that we do. We believe in a community where everyone feels like they belong and are afforded the same opportunities to succeed. We embrace diversity, without divisiveness.

When you join our community, you become part of something bigger — more than 250,000 alumni, students, faculty and staff who share a culture defined by extraordinary achievement and a commitment to those who will follow in their footsteps.

Today, we have a renewed sense of momentum and purpose. We are building a community whose most important goal is supporting our students. After all, we know that when they succeed, we are making the best investment we can in the brightest future possible.

F When Stars Rain Down

Jackson-Brown is an award-winning writer, poet, and playwright who teaches creative writing and English at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. In When Stars Rain Down, she introduces readers to a small, Southern town grappling with haunting questions still relevant today—and to a young woman whose search for meaning resonates across the ages.

R.J. JACOBS

F Somewhere in the Dark

the frontlines of a new pandemic. Written prior to COVID-19, it incorporates wit, razor-edged poignancy, and a relatable cast of characters who provoke both laughter and tears.

BOBBIE ANN MASON Q

Jacobs lives with his family in Nashville, where he maintains a private practice as a psychologist. In Somewhere in the Dark, he writes another compulsively readable novel of suspense for fans of B.A. Paris and Mary Kubica that asks: Do the mistakes of the past mark us as guilty for life?

HALLIE LEE Q

F Paint Me Fearless

Born and raised in Louisiana but now residing in Kentucky, Lee has set most of her screenplays and novels in the South. Paint Me Fearless, the first book in The Shady Gully series, is women’s literature, is book-club fiction, and is faith-based.

TIF MARCELO

F In a Book Club Far Away

Marcelo, a veteran U.S. Army nurse, believes and writes about families, friendship, and romances. She’s inspired daily by her own military hero husband and four children. In a Book Club Far Away is a moving novel that follows three Army wives who must overcome their differences when one of them is desperate for help.

KIMMERY MARTIN Q

F Doctors and Friends

Martin is an emergency medicine doctorturned novelist. Raised near Berea, Kentucky, she now lives with her family in North Carolina. In Doctors and Friends, three doctors’ lives are transformed on

F Dear Ann: A Novel

Mason is the author of numerous books, including Clear Springs, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. She lives in Kentucky. In Dear Ann, she captures the excitement of youth and the nostalgia of age, and relates how consideration of the road not taken can illuminate, and perhaps overtake, our present.

ED M c CLANAHAN & J. T. DOCKERY (ILLUS.) Q

F Juanita and the Frog Prince

McClanahan, a native of northeastern Kentucky, is the author of several books, including Not Even Immortality Lasts Forever. Dockery is a cartoonist whose works include In Tongues Illustrated, Spud Crazy (with Nick Tosches), and DESPAIR, volumes 1-3. In the style of underground comix, McClanahan and Dockery present Juanita and the Frog Prince, an outrageous tale adapted from McClanahan’s novella of the same name, originally published in the collection A Congress of Wonders

KAREN SALYER M c ELMURRAY

F Wanting

Radiance: A Novel

McElmurray won an AWP Award for her book Surrendered Child: A Birth Mother’s Journey. She teaches at Gettysburg College and in West Virginia Wesleyan’s Low-Residency MFA program. In

Wanting Radiance, Miracelle Loving’s world comes crashing down when her mother, Ruby, is murdered during a fortune-telling session gone wrong.

FJ MESSINA Q

F The Bluegrass Files: Revenge

Messina is the author of the fast-paced, quick-read murdermystery series set in Lexington. The Bluegrass Files follows the adventures of a young, Italian-American woman thrust into the role of private investigator and surrounded by a cast of interesting and sometimes quirky characters. There currently are five books in this series.

ELLEN BIRKETT MORRIS Q

F Lost Girls: Short Stories

Morris is the author of Lost Girls, a collection of short stories, which explores the experiences of women and girls as they grieve, find love, face uncertainty, take a stand, find their future, and say goodbye to the past.

GURNEY NORMAN Q

F Allegiance

Norman is a novelist and short story writer whose works include Divine Right’s Trip, Kinfolks: The Wilgus Stories, and Ancient Creek: A Folktale. He is a professor of English at the University of Kentucky and served as Kentucky Poet Laureate from 2009-10. Allegiance is an autobiography told through stories, a personal journey into Norman’s life, place, and consciousness.

MICHAEL RECTENWALD

F Thought Criminal

The author of 11 books, Dr. Rectenwald is a pundit and champion of free speech, opposing all forms of authoritarianism and totalitarianism. In Thought Criminal, for Thought Deviationist Varin, the ultimate threat is posed by submission to the Collective Mind. Resistance means living as a fugitive, forever hunted by Robot Police Agents.

ANGELA JACKSONBROWN

PRE-SCHOOL TO K-2

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DIANNA ROSTAD

F You Belong Here Now

Rostad has traveled extensively to pursue the last artifacts of our shared history and breathe life, truth, and hope into her novels. In You Belong Here Now, three orphans journey westward from New York City to the Big Sky Country of Montana, hoping for a better life where beautiful wild horses roam free.

CARTER SICKELS Q

F The Prettiest Star

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“All children could relate to and connect with a family from this story about diversity and inclusion of all different types. There are many extensions at the end of the book that create strong conversation starters for such a relevant topic with children today.”

Sarah Gregory, Educator

“They write and illustrate the most wonderful children’s books designed to help both caregivers and children navigate life’s struggles in a healthy way. The books help caregivers engage children in conversations about what they’ve learned and how they can apply the main message to their lives.”

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Sickels is assistant professor of English at Eastern Kentucky University. The Prettiest Star offers an urgent portrait of a family in the center of a national crisis in order to tell a unique story about the politics and fragility of the body, and to explore the bounds of family and redemption.

VIRGINIA SMITH Q

F Raised for a Purpose: Talia’s Story

Smith is the best-selling author of more than 40 novels, two children’s books, and many shorter works. In Raised for a Purpose, Talia knows her life was restored for a reason. Ten years have passed since that incredible day, and still Talia has no idea why she was resurrected from death.

MINDY STEELE Q

F An Amish Flower Farm

Steele was raised in Kentucky timber country and has been writing since she could hold a crayon against the wall. She writes Amish Romance peppered with just the right amount of humor, as well as engaging contemporary suspense using rural America and its residents as her muse.

RICHARD TAYLOR Q

F Girty

Taylor is a professor of English at Transylvania University. A Poet Laureate of Kentucky from 1999-2000, he is the author of many books. Girty is an evocative work, bringing to life a complex historical figure who must permanently dwell in the borderland between myth and fact, one foot in each domain.

JULIAN THOMAS Q

F Black Heart

Thomas is a teacher, author, and creative director from Lexington. A lifelong writer, he has penned Black Heart, a graphic novel that follows a ruthless young man’s obsession with a gladiator-style deathmatch that lands him in the middle of a secret government conspiracy.

ANNETTE VALENTINE

F Eastbound from Flagstaff

Valentine’s Southern roots account for her purposeful, historical fiction writing and the imaginative works found in her two preceding books of the My Father trilogy. Eastbound from Flagstaff portrays a man who comes to recognize the meaning of authenticity, the significance of family, and the richness of his heritage.

F Night

Came With Many Stars

Van Booy is the awardwinning and bestselling author of 15 books that have been translated into many languages and optioned for film. His latest novel Night Came With Many Stars, set in Kentucky, is a masterfully interwoven story of chance and choice that leads home again to a night blessed with light.

MARGARET VERBLE Q

F When Two Feathers

Fell From the Sky

Verble is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. A native of Oklahoma, she now lives in Lexington. Her first novel, Maud’s Line, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Verble’s new novel, When Two Feathers Fell from the Sky, is an unforgettable and irresistible tale of exotic animals, lingering spirits, and unexpected friendship.

JAYNE MOORE WALDROP Q

F Drowned Town

Waldrop, the author of Retracing My Steps, lives in Lexington. Drowned Town explores the multigenerational impact caused by the loss of home and illuminates the joys and sorrows of a group of people bound by western Kentucky’s Land Between the Lakes and the waters that lie on either side of it.

LAURA MAYLENE WALTER

F Body of Stars

Walter currently is a writer-editor for the Cleveland Public Library, serves as editor-in-chief of the Gordon Square Review, and blogs for the Kenyon Review Her debut novel, Body of Stars, explores a patriarchal society that clings to old ways and classifies women according to their bodies.

LAWRENCE WEILL Q

F Silas LaMontaie

Weill, a Kentucky author and artist, has written multiple books. Silas LaMontaie is a literary novel of intrigue, wit, and family wisdom, and is full of the colors,

sights, and sounds of the South. Ultimately, it is a story of determining one’s values and remaining true to them.

SUSAN BECKHAM ZURENDA

F Bells for Eli

After teaching literature, composition, and creative writing to thousands of high school and college students for 33 years, Zurenda turned her attention to putting the novel in her heart on paper. In Bells for Eli, Zurenda transports readers into a small Southern town where quiet, ordinary life becomes extraordinary.

POETRY

BERNARD CLAY Q

F English Lit

Clay grew up in Louisville. A member of the Affrilachian Poets collective, he now lives on a farm in eastern Kentucky with his wife, Lauren. Clay’s autobiographical poetry debut, English Lit, juxtaposes the roots of Black male identity against an urban and rural Kentucky landscape.

RONALD W. DAVIS Q

F To Emit Teal

Davis, writing under the pen name upfromsumdirt, is a poet and visual artist. He is co-founder of the original Wild Fig Books and Coffee in Lexington. Dedicated to Emmett Till, and more recent Black victims of violence, Davis' new volume of poetry, To Emit Teal, is entirely an urgent demand for social justice.

NANA LAMPTON Q

F The Turtle With Seven Eyes

Lampton, a lifelong Kentuckian, is the current chair and CEO of Hardscuffle,

Inc. She lives on a farm in Goshen, Kentucky. The Turtle With Seven Eyes, a collection of 36 poems, is her most recent book. Her previous poetry collections include The Moon with the Sun in Her Eye and Bloom on a Split Board.

GEORGE ELLA LYON Q

F Back to the Light

Lyon, Kentucky Poet Laureate from 2015-16, is the award-winning author of more than 40 books for children and adults. She lives in Lexington. Back to the Light is a brilliant new collection that traces the course of a woman’s life from girlhood to mature female wisdom.

JEREMY PADEN Q

F world as sacred burning heart

Paden is a professor of Spanish and Latin American Literature at Transylvania University in Lexington and is on faculty at Louisville’s Spalding University. In world as sacred burning heart, he offers a collection of poems set in Colonial Latin America that play with the language and syntax of 16-century chronicles.

FRANK X WALKER Q

F Black Box: Poems

Walker is a native of Danville, Kentucky. Kentucky Poet Laureate from 2013-14, he is founding member of the Affrilachian Poets. In Black Box, he melds autobiography, political commentary, and literary allusions into a beautiful journey through the real “Affrilachia”— a word Walker created to bring into focus the lives of the African Americans who call the rural and Appalachian South home.

CRYSTAL WILKINSON Q

F Perfect Black: Poems

Wilkinson is the 2021-22 Kentucky Poet Laureate and the author of three award-winning novels, including The Birds of Opulence. She is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Kentucky. In Perfect Black , she muses on topics such as motherhood, the

SIMON VAN BOOY

politics of her Black body, lost fathers, mental illness, sexual abuse, and religion.

MARIANNE WORTHINGTON Q

F The Girl Singer: Poems

Worthington is a poet, editor, and co-founder of Still: The Journal. She lives and teaches in southeastern Kentucky. Worthington divides Girl Singer into three distinct yet harmonious parts, cantillating local, familial, and personal histories across rural Appalachia.

NONFICTION

BRAD ASHER Q

University of Kentucky. In TV, she weaves personal memoir, social and political history, and key moments in the history of news broadcasting and prime time entertainment—illustrating what a constant companion and dominant cultural force television has been.

F The Most Hated Man in Kentucky: The Lost Cause and the Legacy of Union General

Stephen Burbridge

Asher lives in Louisville. For the last third of the 19th century, Union Gen. Burbridge enjoyed the unenviable distinction of being the most hated man in Kentucky. In this biography, Asher explores how Burbridge earned his reputation, adding a new layer to the ongoing reexamination of Kentucky during and after the Civil War.

TED FRANKLIN BELUE Q

F Finding Daniel Boone: His Last Days in Missouri & the Strange

Fate of His Remains

Belue lives in Murray, Kentucky, with his wife, Lavina. In 2018, he retired from Murray State University’s Department of History. Finding Daniel Boone is a unique tribute to America’s first frontier hero, giving closure to the greatest of all his mysteries: the controversy surrounding his final resting place.

SUSAN BORDO Q

F TV

Bordo is Professor Emerita at the

H. W. BRANDS

F Our First Civil War: Patriots and Loyalists in the American Revolution

Brands holds the Jack S. Blanton Sr. Chair in History at the University of Texas at Austin. He has written more than a dozen biographies and histories. Our First Civil War is a fresh recasting of the American Revolution, not just as a war between the American Colonists and the British Redcoats, but also as a violent battle among neighbors, friends, and family members, where those committing sedition ultimately were remembered as heroes and Founding Fathers. Brands’ visit is sponsored by the University of Kentucky Department of History.

TOM BULLEIT Q

F Bulleit Proof: How I Took a 150-Year-Old Family Recipe and a Revolver, and Disrupted the Entire Liquor Industry One Bottle, One Sip, One Handshake at a Time

Bulleit is a combat veteran, father,

husband, accomplished attorney, and proud Kentuckian. The story behind the brand and the man behind the name are both subject and author of Bulleit Proof, an engaging and inspiring tapestry of tales from one of the liquor industry’s most notorious disruptors.

BILL CADDELL & FLO CADDELL

F

The Watercolors of Harlan Hubbard

Bill Caddell has championed his hero, Harlan Hubbard (1900-1988), for more than 50 years, sharing and exhibiting Hubbard’s art nationwide. Flo Caddell believes in Hubbard’s philosophy of making life a work of art. The Watercolors of Harlan Hubbard not only argues Hubbard’s place in the canon of art history but also highlights and analyzes the artist’s own voice.

TRACY CAMPBELL Q

F The Year of Peril: America in 1942

Campbell is a professor of American History at the University of Kentucky. The Year of Peril examines how American society responded to the greatest stress experienced since the Civil War and reveals the various ways that the trauma of 1942 forced Americans to redefine their relationship with democracy.

PETER S. CANELLOS

F The Great

Dissenter: The Story of Judge Marshall Harlan, America’s Judicial Hero

Canellos is managing editor for enterprise at Politico, overseeing the site’s magazine, investigative journalism, and major projects. The Great Dissenter is a definitive and sweeping biography of an American hero who stood against the forces of Gilded Age America to fight for civil rights and economic freedom: Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan, a native of Kentucky. Canellos’

visit is made possible in partnership with Centre College.

LINDSAY M. CHERVINSKY

F The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution

Dr. Chervinsky is a historian of early America, the presidency, and the U.S. government. The U.S. Constitution never established a presidential cabinet. So how did George Washington create one of the most powerful bodies in the federal government? Chervinsky reveals the far-reaching consequences of Washington’s choice in The Cabinet

RICK CHRISTMAN Q

F Fat Chance: Diet Mania, Greed and the Infamous Fen-Phen Swindle

Christman, CEO of Employment Solutions and a former community columnist for the Lexington Herald-Leader, lives in Lexington. Recounting a dramatic affair that bears conspicuous similarities to opioid-related class-action litigation against the pharmaceutical industry, Fat Chance offers an engaging account of one of America’s most prominent product liability cases.

TOM CLAVIN

F Lightning Down: A World War II Story of Survival

Clavin is a #1 New York Times bestselling author who lives in Sag Harbor, New York. On August 13, 1944, Joe Moser set off on his 44th combat mission over occupied France. Soon, he would join almost 150 other Allied airmen as prisoners in Buchenwald, one of the most notorious and deadly of the Nazi concentration camps. Lightning Down tells this riveting true story.

SARA WALTER COMBS Q

F Bert Combs: The Fern Hill Years

Fulfilling her promise to her late husband, former Gov. Bert Combs, appellate Judge Sara Combs recreates the mystique of their life, love, and adventures at Fern Hill, the log home they built together in the mountains of eastern Kentucky. It is a poignant memoir of his life and his tragic death 30 years ago.

BOBI CONN Q

F In the Shadow of the Valley

Conn was born in Morehead, Kentucky. In the Shadow of the Valley is a clear-eyed and compassionate memoir of the Appalachian experience by a woman who embraced its astonishing beauty, narrowly escaped its violence, and struggles to call it home.

KRISTIN CZARNECKI Q

F The First Kristin: The Story of a Naming

Czarnecki is an English professor at Georgetown College. In The First Kristin: The Story of a Naming, she delves into the unique experience of being named after a deceased sibling: her parents’ first child, who died at age 3—eight and a half years before the author was born.

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JENN DAVIS Q

F The Southern Baking Cookbook

Davis is a food photographer as well as the creator of the Two Cups Flour blog. She lives in Louisville. With The Southern Baking Cookbook, anyone can experience some down-south magic. Davis blends her Southern sensibilities with a unique approach to flavor, reimagining crowdpleasing classics with a twist.

KEVIN LANE DEARINGER Q

F Bad Sex in Kentucky

A Broadway performer and teacher, Dearinger retired to his native Kentucky after nearly five decades as a New Yorker. Bad Sex in Kentucky is about seeking grace under pressure, even at the risk of a pratfall. It focuses on place, family, and heritage.

ELIZABETH D i SAVINO Q

F Katherine Jackson

French: Kentucky’s Forgotten Ballad Collector

DiSavino is assistant professor of music at Berea College. Katherine Jackson French draws on never-before-seen artifacts from the author, French’s granddaughter, DiSavino reclaims the life and legacy of this pivotal scholar by emphasizing the ways French’s work shaped and could reshape our conceptions about Appalachia.

DAVID DOMINÉ Q

F A Dark Room in Glitter Ball City: Murder, Secrets, and Scandal in Old Louisville

Dominé, the author of 12 other books, lives in Louisville, where he teaches at Bellarmine University. In June 2010, police discovered a body buried in the wine cellar of a Victorian mansion in Old Louisville. When author Dominé sat in on the trials, he saw a deeper story emerging.

CYNTHIA GRAUBART

F Blueberry Love

Graubart, the author of Blueberry Love and Strawberry Love, is a James Beard Awardwinning cookbook author, a cooking teacher, and a culinary television producer. Blueberry Love celebrates this sweet-tart summer fruit with 46 recipes for enjoying blueberries, fresh or frozen.

MEL STEWART HANKLA Q

F Into the Bluegrass: Art and Artistry of Kentucky’s Historic Icons

Hankla grew up in Jamestown, Kentucky, and now lives in Carter County with his wife. Into the Bluegrass is 355 pages packed with gorgeous artifacts, stories of early settlers, lush photos, and insights into our ancestors, who made Kentucky what it is today.

NICHOLAS D. HARTLEP Q

F Teacher Educators as Critical Storytellers: Effective Teachers as Windows and Mirrors

Hartlep teaches at Berea College. Breaking away from the historically dominant narrative that White females make the best teachers, his latest book contends that effective teachers can be both “windows” and “mirrors” for students.

F The Grey Men: Pursing the Stasi Into the Present

Hope served as an FBI agent for more than 25 years. In The Grey Men, he uses insider knowledge and access to Stasi records to track and expose ex-officers after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The book comes as a warning from the past, as current governments build an unprecedented network of surveillance over their citizens.

JAMES W. HOLSINGER JR. & F. DOUGLAS SCUTCHFIELD (EDS.) Q

F Contemporary Public Health: Principles, Practice, and Policy

Scutchfield is the Peter P. Bosomworth Endowed Professor of Health Services Research and Policy Emeritus at the University of Kentucky. Holsinger is the Charles T. Wethington Jr. Endowed Chair in the Health Sciences Emeritus at the University of Kentucky. Contemporary Public Health provides historical background that contextualizes the current state of that field and explores the major issues practitioners face today.

JIM HOST Q

F Changing the Game: My Career in Collegiate Sports Marketing

Host is founder of Host Communications, Inc., a nationally renowned college sports marketing and association management company. Changing the Game is the first complete account of Host’s professional life; his

RALPH HOPE

time in minor league baseball, real estate, and the insurance business; and his foray into Kentucky politics.

JENNIFER HUNTER Q

F Cook Together, Eat Together

University of Kentucky, Cooperative Extension Service, Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) Extension represents a group of educators sharing the university’s research knowledge with individuals, families, and communities to improve quality of life. In Cook Together, Eat Together, the authors serve up tasty, budget-friendly dishes that home cooks and their kids can prepare.

BRIAN KILMEADE

F The President and the Freedom Fighter: Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and Their Battle to Save America’s Soul

New York Times bestselling author Kilmeade co-hosts Fox News Channel’s Fox & Friends, the radio show The Brian Kilmeade Show, and the Fox Nation series What Made America Great. In The President and the Freedom Fighter, Kilmeade’s seventh book, he tells the story of how two American heroes moved from strong disagreement to friendship, changing the entire course of history in the process.

SUSAN E. LINDSEY

F Liberty Brought Us Here: The True Story of American Slaves Who Migrated to Liberia

Lindsey is co-author and editor of Speed Family Heritage Recipes. Exploring the

motives and attitudes of colonization supporters and those who lived in the colony, Liberty Brought Us Here offers perspectives beyond the standard narrative that colonization was driven solely by racism or forced exile.

L. SCOTT LINGAMFELTER

F Desert Redleg: Artillery Warfare in the First Gulf War

Col. Lingamfelter was raised in Richmond, Virginia. In Desert Redleg, this veteran and former Redleg of the 1st Infantry Division Artillery recounts the logistical and strategic decisions that led to a coalition victory. Part military history, part personal memoir, this book provides a boots-on-the-ground perspective on the largest U.S. artillery bombardment since World War II.

KYLE MACY Q

(WITH DR. JOHN HUANG)

F From the Rafters of Rupp

After a successful collegiate and professional basketball career, Macy has worked as a college basketball broadcast analyst across multiple media outlets. Dr. Huang is a retired orthodontist and military veteran who covers University of Kentucky sports. Beginning in 2017, Macy hosted “From the Rafters of Rupp,” a series of interviews now packaged in a coffee-table book.

AMY M c GRATH Q

F Honor Bound: An American Story of Dreams and Service

McGrath was raised in Edgewood, Kentucky. Honor Bound is the inspiring story of the first female Marine to fly a combat mission in an F/A-18 and the

transformative events that led to her bold decision to take on the most powerful man in the U.S. Senate.

GUY

MENDES Q

F Walks to the Paradise Garden: A Lowdown Southern Odyssey

A native of New Orleans, Mendes has lived and worked in Kentucky since 1970. He teaches Darkroom Photography at the University of Kentucky. Walks to the Paradise Garden, the last unpublished manuscript of the late poet and provocateur Jonathan Williams, chronicles Williams’ road trips across the Southern U.S. with photographers Guy Mendes and Roger Manley.

OUITA MICHEL Q

(WITH SARA GIBBS & GENIE GRAF)

F Just a Few Miles South: Timeless Recipes from Our Favorite Places

Michel is a six-time James Beard Foundation Award nominee. Co-author Sara Gibbs is a chef as well as a recipe writer and editor. Co-author Genie Graf is the marketing and communications director at the Ouita Michel Family of Restaurants. Michel and her restaurants are regularly featured in local and national media. She lives in Midway, Kentucky. Just a Few Miles South serves up the recipes that patrons of Michel’s central Kentucky restaurants have come to know and love.

LISA M. MILLER Q

F The Heart of Leadership for

Women: Cultivating a Sacred Space

Miller is a community builder who specializes in women’s mind-body health. The Heart of Leadership for Women is about cultivating the sacred space for meeting, learning, and growth, where empowerment is fostered, and transformation is made possible.

CARLY MUETTERTIES AND MADDIE SHEPARD Q

F Bluegrass

Bold: Stories of Kentucky Women

Muetterties is the Director of Curriculum Design at Summit Learning. She lives in Lexington. Shepard is a Deeper Learning Resource Teacher in the Curriculum Design and Learning Innovation Department of Jefferson County Public Schools in Louisville. Bluegrass Bold celebrates 36 Kentucky women who helped improve the state and the world beyond. Portraits by female Kentucky artists accompany each profile.

MARYANNE O’HARA

F Little Matches: A Memoir of Grief and Light

O’Hara published short stories before writing Cascade, a novel that explores “what lasts.” A raw, uplifting memoir in the vein of The Year of Magical Thinking , Little Matches illuminates a mother’s grief over the loss of her adult child and considers the hope of soulful connections that transcend the boundary between life and death.

CHARLES W. PEARL Q

F Dancing at the Yurt: An Interfaith Spiritual Journey

Pearl, a retired journalist living in Kentucky, has won numerous awards for writing and photography. Writing Dancing at the Yurt began in 2012, when he met fascinating people at a Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center retreat. He writes about their spiritual journeys and includes many others of diverse faiths who have inspired him.

MATTHEW PEARL

F The Taking of Jemima Boone: Colonial Settlers, Tribal Nations, and the Kidnap That Shaped America

Pearl’s novels have been international and New York Times bestsellers. In his nonfiction debut, The Taking of Jemima Boone, he unearths a forgotten and dramatic series of events from early in the Revolutionary War, opening a window into America’s transition from colony to nation, with the heavy moral costs incurred amid shocking new alliances and betrayals.

JEREMY D. POPKIN Q

F A New World Begins: The History of the French Revolution

Popkin is the William T. Bryan Chair of History at the University of Kentucky. Written for a general audience, A New World Begins introduces readers not just to familiar aspects of this story, but to the debates about women’s rights and the abolition of slavery that make this Revolution a precursor of issues that concern us today.

MIKE PRATT

(WITH TOM LEACH) Q

F Mike Pratt: A Life in Basketball

Pratt is color analyst for the UK Radio Network, alongside Tom Leach. This collection of candid and intimate conversations between Pratt and Leach tells Pratt’s story and gives fans and readers insight into each season between 2002 and 2021 that only someone like Mike Pratt could have.

SAM QUINONES

F The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Age of Fentanyl and Meth

Quinones is a journalist, author, and storyteller. The Least of Us, a searing follow-up to his award-winning book Dreamland, explores the terrifying next stages of the opioid epidemic and the

quiet yet ardent stories of community repair, weaving analysis of the drug trade into tales of humble communities.

WILFRED REILLY Q

F Taboo: Ten Facts

You Can’t Talk About

Reilly is an associate professor of Political Science at Kentucky State University. It has become virtually impossible to honestly discuss race, gender, and class issues in mainstream American society because, if you dare to repeat certain “taboo truths,” you will be ostracized as a bigot. In Taboo, Reilly fearlessly presents 10 of these truths, investigating why the mainstream is so afraid to acknowledge that they’re true.

SHAWNA KAY RODENBERG Q

F Kin: A Memoir

Rodenberg is a registered nurse, community college English instructor, mother, and grandmother, who lives in southern Indiana. Her memoir, Kin, is a story of family—about the forgiveness and love within its bounds—and generations of Appalachians who have endured, harmed, and held each other through lifetimes of personal and regional tragedy.

SYLVIA SHURBUTT (ED.)

F Silas House: Exploring an Appalachian Writer’s Work

Shurbutt is the director of the Shepherd University Center for Appalachian Studies and Communities. She lives in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. In this groundbreaking book, editor Shurbutt brings together established and rising scholars to discuss Silas House and his writings through a critical lens.

MICHAEL PATRICK F. SMITH Q

F The Good Hand: A Memoir of Work, Brotherhood, and Transformation in an American Boomtown

In The Good Hand, Smith details life working the rigs during North Dakota’s Bakken oil boom. Based in central Kentucky, he is also a playwright and works as a musician, sharing the stage

with folk luminaries such as Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Happy Traum, and others.

KATHY STEARMAN Q

F It’s Not About the Gun: Lessons from My Global Career as a Female FBI Agent

Stearman is a retired FBI Special Agent and author of the memoir, It’s Not About the Gun, which focuses on her time overseas as head of FBI offices in southcentral Asia and China.

PEGGY NOE STEVENS & SUSAN REIGLER Q

F Which Fork Do I Use With My Bourbon?: Setting the Table for

Tastings, Food Pairings, Dinners, and Cocktail Parties

Stevens, the first woman to receive the title of Master Bourbon Taster, was Brown-Forman’s Global Event Planner. Reigler, author of many award-winning books, is a Certified Executive Bourbon Steward. Which Fork Do I Use with My Bourbon? offers a guide to hosting a successful bourbon-tasting party— complete with recipes, photos, and tips.

JASON G. STRANGE Q

F Shelter From the Machine: Homesteaders in the Age of Capitalism

Strange, a scholar and professor of Peace and Social Justice at Berea College, grew up in eastern Kentucky and northern California—places with rich histories of homesteading. In Shelter from the Machine, he finds people engaged in a lifestyle that offers challenge and fulfillment for those in search of virtues like self-employment and escape from the mainstream.

ALAN SULLIVAN (WITH JOE COX) Q F Voice of the Wildcats: Claude Sullivan and the Rise of Modern Sportscasting

Sullivan, the son of Claude Sullivan, began

working in the family broadcasting business at age 11. Attorney Joe Cox is the author or co-author of 10 books. As one of the first voices of the University of Kentucky men’s basketball program, Claude Sullivan (1924-67) became a nationally known sportscasting pioneer. In Voice of the Wildcats, the authors offer a heartfelt look at the sportscaster’s life.

WES SWIETEK Q

F The Cemetery Road Murders: The Shocking True Tale of Kentucky’s Murder Mansion

Award-winning journalist Swietek, who lives in Bowling Green with his family, is currently managing editor of the Bowling Green Daily News The Cemetery Road Murders brings new life to crimes now seven decades removed, reminding us of Bowling Green’s sordid past and a lonely house on the outskirts of town.

WILLIAM H. TURNER Q

F The Harlan Renaissance: Stories of Black Life in Appalachian Coal Towns

Turner was raised in a coal mining family in Harlan County, Kentucky. The Harlan Renaissance, his memoir, is a remembrance of kinship and community in eastern Kentucky’s coal towns written by one of the luminaries of Appalachian studies.

SARAH TAYLOR VANOVER Q

F America’s ChildCare Crisis: Rethinking an Essential Business

Vanover, the director of the Division of Child Care for the Commonwealth of Kentucky, has been working in the field for more than 22 years. America’s ChildCare Crisis takes a hard look at the current state of the industry and explores how to save this critical service.

GARY P. WEST Q

F Murder on Youngers Creek Road: How Car Thieves, Gamblers, Bootleggers & Bombers

in One Kentucky Town Ignited a Murder-ForHire in Another

Author and journalist West lives in Bowling Green, Kentucky, with his wife, Deborah. Murder on Youngers Creek Road is the true story of a murder-for-hire gone wrong that involves a well-known automobile dealer, two hit men hired to kill him, and a pair of high-profile business partners.

BOB WILLCUTT (WITH SUSAN MILLER) Q

F Waveland’s Treasures: 50th Anniversary of Waveland State

Historic Site

Award-winning photographer Willcutt has always had an interest in all types of art, especially photography. Historical interpreter Miller started volunteering at Waveland in May 2016. Waveland, one of the finest examples of Antebellum architecture in the state, is today a museum. Waveland’s Treasures features over 200 photographs of the mansion.

ANGENE WILSON & JACK WILSON Q

F Voices from the Peace Corps: Fifty Years of Kentucky Volunteers

Angene Wilson is Professor Emeritus of Education at the University of Kentucky. Jack Wilson spent more than 35 years in public service. In Voices from the Peace Corps, the Wilsons, who served in Liberia from 1962-64, follow the experiences of volunteers as they join, attend training, adjust to living overseas, and eventually return home.

Thanks to the Kentucky Tourism, Arts & Heritage Cabinet for sponsoring the author Signing Gallery!

Events and authors are subject to change due to the ongoing pandemic. Always check our website, kybookfestival.org, for information including the latest updates.

2021 Carl West Award Winner

We’re pleased to announce that this year’s Carl West Award winner is Dr. James C. Klotter. Klotter has written, edited, or co-edited nearly twenty books on Kentucky history, including, Henry Clay: The Man Who Would Be President (2018). Klotter was a staff member at the Kentucky Historical Society from 1973 to 1998, where he also served as executive director, and he was a professor of history at Georgetown College from 1998 to 2018. He remains an active researcher, author, and Kentucky’s State Historian—a post he has held since 1980.

The Carl West Literary Award, presented by Kentucky Humanities, recognizes a living individual (journalist, educator, librarian, author, etc.) or institution (publishing house, university press, literary organization, etc.) who has made a significant impact on the literary culture and community of the Commonwealth. The award is named for journalist Carl West, editor of the Frankfort State Journal, who founded the Kentucky Book Fair. Applications are received from May-July, with a winner voted on in the summer. We’re so pleased to honor Dr. Klotter this year! Thanks to the Carl West Award Team for working together to choose a winner.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR GENEROUS SUPPORT!

KENTUCKY BOOK FESTIVAL DONORS

This list includes individuals and organizations who donated to the Kentucky Book Festival from September 2020 through August 9, 2021 (note, organizations who sponsored the 2021 book festival are listed above).

Karl Benson

Lynda M. Sherrard

Elsa Heisel Sule Foundation

Wildcat Moving

Berea College

Kentucky Historical Society Foundation

Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning

University of Pikeville

Campbellsville University

University of Kentucky

James F. Hawk

Rogers Barde

Elizabeth Barnes

Juilee Decker

Kathryn Furlong

Phylis Tomlinson

Becky & Tom Eblen

Edward Klee

Phillip St. Clair

Thomas H. Appleton, Jr.

Michael Berry

Michael Bowman, in memory of William Bowman

Kim Edwards Charitable Foundation

Mike Norris

Fredia Blackwell

Anonymous

Anonymous

Black Swan Books

Elmer Pullen

Jack H. Smith, III

Colette Cardwell

Stuart Tobin, MD

Joyce K. Mosher

Edward Klee

Lynda Tharp

Betty Ann Luscher

JoEllen Tumbrink

Jane F. Brake, Ph.D

Christopher J. Helvey

Kathy Paynter

Jeanine Large Provencal, in memory of Clifford Edmond Provencal

—Alan Cutler, legendary sports anchor and reporter