Members of the local literary community weigh in on their favorite Kentucky-related books released in 2019 (and one coming out in early 2020) in this annual feature presented in conjunction with our friends at the Carnegie Center for Literacy & Learning. We hope this list will inspire last minute gift ideas for the literary lovers in your life or fodder for your own cozy winter reading.
“Allegiance” by Gurney Norman
In 1977, Gurney Norman published a slim volume titled “Kinfolks: The Wilgus Stories,” 10 soft-spoken but exquisitely crafted short stories that encompass the childhood and coming-of-age of Wilgus Collier, a young native son of Appalachia. The modest collection soon found an attentive audience; it has quietly accumulated thousands of admirers and has never been out of print.
“Allegiance” is the long-anticipated continuation of those stories. Novelistic in breadth and scope and gravity, “Allegiance” harkens back once more to Wilgus’ Appalachian boyhood and traces his life deep into an adult career as publisher/editor of his hometown weekly newspaper. In the course of three dozen stories – several of them small masterpieces in their own right – Wilgus bears painful witness to the long, slow, inexorable disintegration of his family – “a good family of people,” as one character describes them, the decline and desolation of his beloved mountain homeland and his own parallel descent into alcoholism and depression.
Yet for all their melancholy properties, these stories are replete with sly good humor and vast generosity of spirit. In a rich admixture of memory and imagination, delivered in prose as clear and pure and beguiling as mountain music, Norman pays homage to his place and its people. This book is an act of grace.
– Reviewed by Ed McClanahan, author of “The Natural Man” and “Famous People I Have Known”
“Not Even Immortality Lasts Forever” by Ed McClanahan
Ed McClanahan fans never tire of reading his humorous stories about awkwardly coming of age in small-town Kentucky in the 1950s. Counterpoint Press will publish a new volume of them, “Not Even Immortality Lasts Forever,” in February 2020. This is McClanahan at his best. The author of such classics as “The Natural Man” and “Famous People I Have Known,” he takes readers back to his youthful misadventures in what he describes as “mostly true stories.” My favorite story, titled “A Work of Genius,” is about the time McClanahan witnessed a trick bicycle artist who drove into Brooksville, Kentucky, unannounced and put on a show the town never forgot. McClanahan, a member of the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame, has a way with words that never fails to tickle readers’ funny bones.
– Reviewed by Tom Eblen, Carnegie Center literary arts liaison
“Last Will, Last Testament” by Frank X Walker
Former Kentucky Poet Laureate, beloved professor and multidisciplinary artist Frank X Walker’s highly anticipated 10th book of poetry, “Last Will, Last Testament” (Accents Publishing, 2019), turns our attention to the inescapable circle of life. Birth and death share intimate space in this full-length collection, prompting conflicting feelings of grief and hope, loss and gain. True to Walker’s work, “Last Will, Last Testament” asks us to consider how the seasons of our lives are situated within a larger narrative and how the inner workings of our personal relationships reflect a greater social phenomenon.
– Reviewed by Kimber Gray, Carnegie Center marketing associate
“The Time Unraveller’s Travel Journal” by Ron Davis
First of all, this is not a chapbook. That is too neat. Too official. “The Time Unraveller’s Travel Journal” is an esoteric sidewalk cracker, a fragment of a larger vision where liberation plays kissing cousins with shamans. Lexington-based poet, visual artist and graphic designer Ronald Davis (aka “Upfromsumdirt”) writes poems that aren’t up for casual conversation. Davis’ pen channels Ishmael Reed and Carl Sagan into his disjointed stanzas. From the corner store to the fields to the quiet vacuum of space, this work is Monk on the keys. A ferocious effort by Davis and Radical Paper Press.
– Reviewed by JC McPherson, Carnegie Center office associate
“For Black Girls Like Me” by Mariama J. Lockington
Lexington author Mariama J. Lockington has written for middle-schoolers a riveting first novel about an 11-year-old African American girl growing up with her adoptive white family. Many adults will be just as captivated by the book as their children. Lockington’s writing is poetic, her young characters are compelling, and her story sings with hard-won truths and triumphs. At its core, it’s about the struggle of each child to find safety and identity in a world of emotional peril.
– Reviewed by Neil Chethik, Carnegie Center director
“Available Light” by Audrey Rooney
When I picked up “Available Light,” I thought it would be a quick read, something I could enjoy over a weekend. That was absolutely true, but I also realized Audrey Rooney’s words, artfully arranged on the page, ask to be reread and savored.
Rooney is a multi-talented writer living in Lexington who draws on her extensive musical and artistic talents to focus on the extraordinary found in the ordinary. Her lyrical, precise and elegant descriptions highlight her keen observations. I appreciated that her poetry made me stop and look around, and to see the specialness of what makes my everyday life meaningful and rich – if only I would take the time to really see it. Each poem left me with a sense of calm thoughtfulness and a desire to read it aloud just to hear the musicality of her language. “Available Light” is filled with the type of poetry I want to return to, and I easily envision using this book as a source for a daily meditation practice. That’s because even though “Available Light” is accessible to those just wanting a casual dip into poetry, her work is layered with meaning that will resonate on a deeper, personal level with each new reading.
– Reviewed by Marcia Jones, coordinator of the Carnegie Center Author Academy and author/co-author of more than 130 books for children
“English Lit” by Bernard Clay
Here’s our Affrilachian progeny’s first book. Crafted with a black farmer’s heart, the poems in Clay’s debut collection blast off from Louisville’s West End (the best end) into a brave new world. One of the most rooted and nappiest voices of his generation, Clay delivers a beautiful tribute to his people, his community and his generation’s dance with words, adding his name to the litany of Kentucky poets who love both the land and its people.
– Reviewed by Frank X Walker, Carnegie Center board member & author of “Affrilachia”
Kentucky Writers’ Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony
The Carnegie Center for Literacy & Learning invites the public to further celebrate Kentucky literature with the upcoming eighth annual Kentucky Writers’ Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, taking place at The Kentucky Theatre at 7 p.m. on Feb. 5. Each year, a carefully vetted selection committee selects a handful of Kentucky writers whose work reflects the character and culture of our commonwealth, with the goal of educating Kentuckians about the state’s rich literary heritage. This year’s inductees include Sena Jeter Naslund, Cleanth Brooks, Sam Shepard, Hollis Summers and Lucy Furman; Gray Zeitz of Larkspur Press will also be honored with the Hall of Fame’s inaugural Literary Impact Award. The ceremony is free and open to the public and will feature live music and readings. Books by the inductees will be available for sale, courtesy of Joseph Beth Booksellers, following the ceremony.