Community

Wendell Berry

Wendell Berry is an author, environmental activist, and farmer. He is the author of works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, and has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including a 2010 National Humanities Medal. He lives and works with his wife, Tanya Berry, on their farm in Port Royal, Kentucky.
https://berrycenter.org/

Ty Bouldin

Ty Bouldin has followed his interest in the arts since childhood, drawing, painting, making music, and writing.  Born in Charleston, West Virginia in 1947, he taught English composition and humanities in West Virginia and Arizona for 31 years before he and his wife retired to their farmstead in West Virginia. His first chapbook, The Collected Poems of an Anonymous Young Poet, was published by Hiram Poetry Review in 1969.  With more than 50 years intervening, in 2022 he published Montani Semper…Snapshots from an Appalachian Family Album with Outskirts Press.  Since then, he has published three additional books with Outskirts, with two new titles to be released in 2025.

Susan Ross Daole

Susan is a master gardener, and former librarian. She lives in Lexington, Kentucky.

Silas House

Silas House is the New York Times bestselling author of seven novels, including his most recent, Lark Ascending, which was a Booklist Editors’ Choice and is the winner of the 2023 Southern Book Prize and the 2023 Nautilus Book Award. In 2022 he was the recipient of the Duggins Prize, the largest award for an LGBTQ writer in the nation. In 2023 he was inducted as the Poet Laureate of Kentucky for 2023-2025 and became a Grammy finalist. His writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Time, Garden & Gun, The New York Times, Oxford American, Ecotone, Tri-Quarterly, and many more of the country’s leading publications. House teaches at Berea College and at the Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Creative Writing.

www.silas-house.com

Barbara Kingsolver

Barbara Kingsolver’s novel, Demon Copperhead, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2023.  It also won Britain’s prestigious Women’s Prize for Fiction  Her books of fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction have won a devoted worldwide readership and many awards, including the National Humanities Medal. She lives with her husband on a farm in Appalachian Virginia. 

www.barbarakingsolver.net

Nana Lampton

Nana Lampton is a writer, artist, and long time resident of Louisville, KY.

Ada Limón

Ada Limón is the 24th Poet Laureate of The United States. She is the author of numerous books of poetry.  Limón is also the host of the critically-acclaimed poetry podcast “The Slowdown”. Her recent project, You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World, is a collection of poems reflecting on our relationship to the natural world. It features fifty previously unpublished poems from some of the nation’s most accomplished poets.

https://www.adalimon.net

George Ella Lyon

George Ella Lyon is a former Kentucky Poet Laureate 2015-2016.  She is a singer, song writer and activist who writes in multiple genres for readers of all ages. Her recent collections include Voices of Justice: Poems About People Working for a Better World (Holt Books for Young Readers, 2020) and Back to the Light: Poems (U Press of KY, 2021).  For additional information, visit www.georgeellalyon.com.

Diane Lee Moomey

Diane Lee Moomey is a painter and poet living in Half Moon Bay, California, where she is co-host of Coastside Poetry, a monthly reading series; her work has appeared in PoetryMagazine.com, Mezzo Cammin, Caesura, California Quarterly, The Road Less Taken and others. Please visit her at www.dianeleemoomeyart.com

Michael Moran

Michael Moran is the author of two books of poetry. He is a retired psychiatrist who lives on a small farm in Franklin County, Kentucky with his wife Vivian.  Larkspur Press published his collection, The Fallen World, in 2008. His poetry has also been featured on MPR’s “The Writer’s Almanac”.

Leslie Shane

Leslie is the author of two books of poetry published by Larkspur Press.  She is also a book artist who has worked with Larkspur Press, Monterey, KY for over 30 years. She lives in Frankfort, Kentucky.

Lee Smith

Lee Smith has been a voice of the south for decades.  She has been a generous mentor to many gifted writers. She is the author of numerous works including Oral History, The Last Girls, Guests on Earth,  Dimestore:  A Writer’s Life (2016) , and a novella, Blue Marlin (2020). Her recent novel, Silver Alert, came out in 2023. She lives in North Carolina.   www.leesmith.com

Richard Taylor

Richard Taylor served as Kentucky Poet Laureate 1999-2000. He is the author of numerous collections of poetry, two historical novels, and several books relating to Kentucky history.  He was inducted in to the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame in 2023. He recently retired from Transylvania University, and lives on a small farm in Kentucky.

Gray Zeitz

Gray Zeitz is the proprietor of Larkspur Press, now celebrating over 50 years of fine press printing. Gray is a publisher, master printer and poet. He was awarded the Kentucky Artist Award in 2002 and is the recipient of the Kentucky Literary Impact Award.   He lives on a small farm in Monterey, Kentucky.
www.larkspurpress.com

Frank X Walker

Frank X Walker, Kentucky Poet Laureate, 2013-2015. Nominated for an NAACP Image Award in Literature in 2025. Voted one of the most creative professors in the south, Walker coined the term “Affrilachia” and co- founded the Affrilachian Poets. He is the author of thirteen books of poetry, and has received numerous awards. Published in 2024, Load In Nine Times is a collection of historical poetry that gives voice to Black Civil War Soldiers and their families – including his own ancestors – who enlisted in the Union Army in exchange for emancipation. He is the recipient of numerous literary awards. Frank will be inducted in to the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame in 2025. For additional information: https://www.frankxwalker.com