Kentucky Book Festival
katerina.stoykova@uky.edu blakebarber@dhec.com Katerina Stoykova
View the 2023 Kentucky Book Festival author lineup!
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Kentucky Book Festival
John Paul Miller fell in love with writing in the American Literature classroom of Dr. Francis Skipp at the University of Miami, FL. The only thing John Paul knew about horses was what he had seen on T.V. and in the movies, until he met his wife, Judy, and was immersed in her world of thoroughbred racehorses. For the past twenty-plus years, he has spent countless hours in riding lessons, in the saddle on trails, and in the bleachers at horse shows and rodeos at Calgary, Cheyenne, and Ft. Worth. The research for this novel required attendance at Keeneland, the KY Derby and Breeders Cup races. But most important, John Paul was in a completely different classroom with his wife’s friends, who were trainers, veterinarians, jockeys, exercise riders and thoroughbred owners. Their life’s stories from the horse industry. sparked his imagination, and inspired him to write False Riches, a novel about how horses help heal humans. John Paul Miller lives on a farm in Lexington, KY with his wife, four horses and two dogs.

As he approaches the 100th Emmy award of his journalism career, John Boel has devoted much of his life to the craft of storytelling. Cast Away is his memoir, containing five generations of fish stories. Funny ones. Sad ones. Ones that got away. Times we got it right.

LeTonia Jones is a life-long Kentuckian who has used the alchemy of arts and activism for over 25 years. The poems in Black Girl at the Intersection speak from the intersection of social justice and personal heartbreak.

For 25 years, Beth Pride worked in education as a teacher, administrator, and consultant. Since beginning a career as an artist in 2008, Kentucky contemporary impressionist painter Kelly Brewer has developed a national and international following. In The Common Wealth of Kentucky Project, art and storytelling reveal the wealth of this land, the people who live here, and the common connections we, as humans, have with one another.

Scott E. Wigginton, Ph.D., serves as Professor of Pastoral Ministries and Counseling at Campbellsville University. Adventures to Godliness blends Scripture, practical wisdom, and fascinating stories with the in-depth insight of a seasoned soul shepherd to help readers contemplate a theology of adventure.

Stephen Reily served as Director of the Speed Art Museum from 2017-2021. This book documents not just the 32 works featured in the exhibition (most never published before), but also the process by which the Speed used this opportunity to memorialize the life of Breonna Taylor.

Lydia P. Brownlow grew up in Louisville, KY. Fortunately, her parents didn’t make her choose between being a literature kid or a science kid, so she became both. Vermilion Sunrise is a young adult sci-fi novel about the first human colony in another solar system.

A former Guggenheim fellow, Maurice Manning teaches at Transylvania University. Snakedoctor is a rooted in Kentucky culture, history, and geography. His fourth book, The Common Man, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His first book, Lawrence Booth’s Book of Visions, was selected by W.S. Merwin for the Yale Series of Younger Poets.

A past Kentucky Poet laureate and an inductee into the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame, Richard Taylor is the author of numerous poetry collections, historical novels and books relating to Kentucky history. Fathers is a combination of memoir and creative non-fiction, focused on multiple fathers — both paternal and associational.

Jennifer Sommer is the 2014 winner of the Karen and Philip Cushman Late Bloomer Award for a work in progress. Her Eyes Were on the Stars is a picture book biography that introduces young readers to a female scientist in the field of astronomy.

Jessica Strawser is the author of five book club favorite novels. The Next Thing You Know is an emotional, resonant story about the power of human connection, love when you least expect it, hope against the odds, and what it really takes to live life with no regrets.

Dr. James Easterling is currently Assistant Professor/Director of the Global Supply Chain Management program at Eastern Kentucky University. This book is about a little abandoned wiener dog puppy named “Chester” who eventually finds his furever family and a warm, safe, and nurturing home.

Jeff Worley, KY Poet Laureate for 2019-2020, is the author of seven books of poetry. The Poet Laureate of Aurora Avenue is a collection of poems culled from the author’s previous six books, several of which are out of print.

Former Kentucky Poet Laureate and inductee to the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame, George Ella Lyon adds a new picture book to her list of accomplishments. Time to Fly tracks Baby Bird’s passage from fear and doubt alone in the nest to flying about, along with the rest.

The authorized King Kelly Coleman story, never before in print, is recounted by award-winning author Gary P. West, based on actual interviews and information from Coleman himself. Gary P. West is a freelance writer living in Bowling Green, KY.

Emmie Seals is passionate about literacy and spreading the joy of books far and wide. Inspired by adoption, Babble to My Bark gives the perspective of the furry family member welcoming a child. No matter how a family comes together, it makes no difference to man’s best friend.

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

Avalyn Hunter is a nationally recognized authority on Thoroughbred pedigrees and racing history. In this book the author explores the personalities and histories that surrounded Black Gold. Hunter’s work looks behind every stall and tack room door and celebrates the hard work that goes into a great horse and its rivals.

Alicestyne Turley is director of Freedom Stories for the International Storytelling Center in Jonesborough, TN. The Gospel of Freedom seeks to fill the historical gaps and promote the lost voices of the Underground Railroad.

Stuart W. Sanders is former executive director of the Perryville Battlefield Preservation Association. Anatomy of a Duel examines why white male Kentuckians engaged in the “honor culture” of duels and provides fascinating narratives that trace the lives of duelists and opponents.

Paul E. Patton served as the fifty-ninth governor of Kentucky, from 1995 to 2003. Born in Fallsburg, KY, he had a humble upbringing that held few clues about his future as one of the most prominent politicians in the history of the state. In The Coal Miner Who Became Governor, Patton, along with Jeffrey S. Suchanek, details his personal, professional, and political life in Kentucky, starting with his career in the coal industry.

Mick Sullivan is the creator and producer of The Past and the Curious: A History Podcast for Kids and Families. In addition to Short Shorts and the Underwear Hall of Fame, in I See Lincoln’s Underpants kids can read sixteen biographical chapters highlighting interesting moments of famous people’s lives.

W. Bruce Cameron is a # 1 NYT bestselling author of 35 published books, the majority of which are written from the viewpoint of the dogs. His most recent, Love, Clancy: Diary of a Good Dog describes the wacky life of Clancy, a yellow Labrador who is keeping a diary and plotting to get rid of the cat.

Shelley Read was a Senior Lecturer at Western Colorado University for nearly three decades, where she taught literature and environmental studies. GO AS A RIVER is a story of a young woman who follows her heart.

Margaret Verble is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation and a member of a large Cherokee family. Stealing is a gripping, gut-punch of a novel about a Cherokee child removed from her family and sent to a Christian boarding school in the 1950s.

Jeff Alt is a celebrated author and avid outdoor enthusiast. In the fifth book of this award-winning National Park series, Tommy Bubba Jones and his sister, Jenny Hug-a-Bug, uncover amazing facts about Yellowstone National Park while on a mission to solve a park mystery.

Marie Weller and Paula Vertikoff are an Elementary School Counselor and Principal duo dedicated to social emotional wellness for children and the adults who care about them. Cranium Critters is an engaging and educational children’s picture book that introduces young readers to the concept of executive functions in the brain.

Kay Saffari is a college Spanish and ESL instructor, medical interpreter, and writer. We All Count is a counting book, but it teaches young children that everyone has value, regardless of race, religion, abilities, or country of origin.

Sherry Robinson is an award-winning American fiction writer, author of three novels. The women in Echo Her Lovely Bones echo the resilience of generations of women and affirm the importance of women finding their own voice.

A graduate of Transylvania University, Penney Sanders received a Masters from the University of Louisville and a PhD from the University of Alberta in Canada. This book is a road map for the journey we will all make sooner or later.

Patrick Lee Lucas is an associate professor in the College of Design and serves as a Provost Faculty Fellow at the University of Kentucky. Athens on the Frontier examines the material culture of Grecian-style buildings in antebellum America to help recover nineteenth-century regional identities.

Linda Bryant Davis is a retired journalist who co-hosts Kentucky Writers Roundtable, a weekly talk show on RadioLex 93.9. In Between Two Worlds, we meet a family in which parents drink too much, children fear their Bible-toting grandma is secretly a child -eating dinosaur, and a sister goes “existential.”

Kevin Lane Dearinger [Dare-in-jer][he, his] is a retired Broadway actor-singer and English teacher. Mrs. Belmont was an actor for thirteen glorious years, but those years were crucial preparation for her long life as a social reformer and arts activist.

Don Lane served for 26 years as head coach of the Transylvania University men’s basketball team. Sarah Jane Herbener helps people preserve their life stories through her personal history service. In The Lane Way, co-written with Sarah Jane Herbener, Coach Lane tells readers entertaining and moving stories about his life in coaching.

Gerald L. Smith is professor of history at the University of Kentucky and pastor of Pilgrim Baptist Church in Lexington. In Slavery and Freedom in the Bluegrass State, editor Gerald L. Smith presents a collection of essays that uncover stories of pain, protest, and perseverance of African Americans in Kentucky.

LaTrell Halcomb is determined to teach young scholars that anything is possible as long as they continue to strive to achieve their dreams. In Brownie Boy, Mike can’t wait to get home and eat his favorite dessert.

Gwenda Bond is the New York Times bestselling author and a co-founder of the nonprofit Lexington Writer’s Room. In Mr. & Mrs. Witch, a couple discovers at the altar the surprising secret identities they’ve kept from each other.

David Bell is the New York Times bestselling author of sixteen novels for adults and young adults. Try Not to Breathe is a story about an ex-cop who sets out to find her missing sister and discovers the shocking truth about her family.

upfromsumdirt, Ron Davis, is an autodidactic poet and award-winning visual artist based in Lexington, KY. The Second Stop Is Jupiter is a deep engagement with the cultural narrative, populated with Black hero figures who will fuel the imagination.

R.J. Jacobs has practiced as a psychologist since 2003. A foreboding new dark academia thriller of deception and suspense, This is How We End Things follows the unraveling of a close group of students as they contend with what it means to lie, and be lied to.

Amrita Chakrabarti Myers is the Ruth N. Halls Associate Professor of History and gender studies at Indiana University Bloomington. This book tells the story of Julia Ann Chinn (ca. 1796-1833), the enslaved mixed-race wife of Richard Mentor Johnson, US Vice President under Martin Van Buren.

Lynne Hugo and her husband live in southwest Ohio with their yellow Lab. The Language of Kin explores the various ways humans communicate and fail to communicate, and what we ultimately come to understand and forgive in ourselves and each other.

Written by founding member Bill Luxon, Exiled details the cast of characters in the band’s rise up the charts, plus Stokley’s heart-wrenching fall from the fame he desperately desired and so richly deserved.

Jason is an army brat who grew up on military bases from Germany to Fort Knox, KY. Rachel, the main character in Time Problems, is dreading middle school. She thinks an endless summer would solve her problems. Inspired by her stuffed animals, Rachel draws characters to make her dream come true.

Emily Hilliard is a folklorist and writer based in Berea, KY. Making Our Future argues that folklore is a unifying concept that puts diverse cultural forms in conversation, as well as a framework that helps us reckon with the past, understand the present, and collectively shape the future.

Kristen Gentry is an associate professor of English and Director of Creative Writing at SUNY Geneseo. Set amid the tail end of the crack epidemic and the rise of the opioid crisis, Mama Said evokes Black family life in all its complexity.

Carolyn Grace graduated from Berea College with an undergraduate degree in English composition and a minor in music performance. Grenadine and Other Love Affairs is her first book of poetry, the quest to make sense of oneself and the world, to excavate ever deeper layers of meaning.

David Grise is a retired federal prosecutor who specialized in white collar crime and corruption cases. Bogustan is a story about a newly minted diplomat Rudy Hancock, who has been given the task of convincing corrupt officials in Bogustan to allow their small country to become a dumping ground for America’s nuclear waste.

M Hendrix holds a PhD in creative writing from the University of Cincinnati, where she was a Taft Fellow. The Chaperone tells a story of a young woman’s fight back against the oppressive world she knows, risking everything to set out on a dangerous journey.

Jonathan Greene was born in New York City in 1943. After living in San Francisco twice and graduating from Bard College, he moved to Kentucky in 1966 where members of his family had been living since 1846. Going Through It from Broadstone Books, his 40th book publication, celebrates his 80th birthday.

Sarah L. Hall is associate professor of agriculture and natural resources at Berea College. Meg Wilson, a Berea College alum, is a graduate student in art and art history at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Sown in the Stars brings together the collective knowledge of farmers in central and eastern Kentucky about the custom of planting by the signs.

Mimi Herman’s writing has appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, Shenandoah, Crab Orchard Review and other journals. Based on historical facts, The Kudzu Queen unravels a tangle of sexuality, power, race, and kudzu through an irresistibly delightful (and mostly honest) narrator.

Wendy Jett is a long time fitness instructor, decoupage nerd, improv junkie and loves to write. Girl is a mixed-genre family story, told through the innocent perspective of a young daughter, granddaughter, sister, friend. Stories and poems propel the narrative both in action and in emotion.

Kaitlyn Hill lives with her real-life romance hero in Lexington, KY. Not Here to Stay Friends is a friends-to-lovers spin on The Bachelor and follows two childhood besties reuniting to spend the summer in L.A. after five years apart.

M. Dean Wright is a queer, trans author who writes stories for underrepresented voices like his own. Welcome, Caller explores the intricacies of queer neurodivergent love, and how navigating these experiences can impact life, relationships, and the road to self-acceptance.

Jonathan Fredrick is the author of the Cain City Novels, which were inspired in-part by his hometown of Huntington, West Virginia. Bad Men Will Come is a mystery thriller about pursuing a treasure and the fine line between desire and greed.

Tama Fortner is an ECPA award-winning and bestselling author with more than fifty titles to her credit. God, I Feel Sad teaches kids ages 4 to 8 how to identify the feeling of sadness, see signs of sadness in others and recognize things that can make them feel sad.

Frank Bill is the New York Times bestselling author of The Ravaged. He lives and writes in southern Indiana. Back to the Dirt: A Novel is a story about the struggles of a Vietnam vet to keep his job and relationships.

Michael T. Benson is president and professor of history at Coastal Carolina University. This book focuses on the enduring legacy of Daniel Coit Gilman, the father of the modern research university.

Bryan Bush has been a Civil War re-enactor for twenty years, portraying an artillerist. Louisville’s Gambling Barons returns the reader to the golden age of gambling that Louisville experienced between 1860 and 1885, thanks to the arrival of hundreds of thousands of Union soldiers by steamboat and foot.

Jennifer Chesak is an award-winning freelance science and medical journalist, editor, and fact-checker based in Nashville, TN. The Psilocybin Handbook for Women is a resource for everyone, although it features information specific to those assigned female at birth, because psychedelics may have different effects and applications across the sexes.

Tony Crunk’s first collection of poetry, Living in the Resurrection, was the 1994 selection in the Yale Series of Younger Poets. Coal Man’s Son is a gothic coal-camp mad / sacred fever-dream that remythologizes the origins of both God and Man, and what came between them.

After earning three history degrees, John Cimprich taught primarily at Thomas More College (now University) and retired as professor emeritus. Navigating Liberty comprehensively examines the interaction between escaped slaves and antislavery Northerners in Federally occupied areas of the South during the Civil War.

In this collection of essays, veteran television and newspaper journalist Byron Crawford shares stories about Kentucky’s rural people and places, ranging from the humorous to the poignant to the profound. Collected in a keepsake edition, Crawford’s Kentucky Living columns will delight readers for years to come.

Jennifer lives in San Diego with her husband and is the author of Cradles of the Reich, a historical novel about three very different women living at a Nazi Lebensborn breeding home at the start of World War ll.

Phyllis R. Dixon is a native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and has worked for the U.S. Treasury Department as a National Bank Examiner and owned a bookstore. Intermission is the story of four former girl group members, who reluctantly consider reuniting for a twentieth anniversary tour, despite vows never to speak again.

Past chair of the AWP Board (2019-22), Kathleen Driskell is professor of Creative Writing and Chair of the Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing at Spalding University, home of the nationally distinguished low-residency MFA in Writing Program. The poems in The Vine Temple meditate on light and darkness in the natural world.

Over the years, Helene Dunbar has worked as a drama critic, journalist, and marketing manager, and has written articles on diverse topics. In The Promise of Lost Things, the spirits of the dead roam the streets and there’s no such thing as resting in peace.

Sherman Cahal is a photographer and historian specializing in documenting Appalachian architecture and culture. Adam Paris is an architectural photographer and historian. Michael Maes is an artist and photographer and has been documenting abandoned homes for almost two decades. The images in Abandoned Kentucky offer us a window into our past and stir a sense of wonder about those who have gone before us and the lives they lived.

Normandi Ellis is an award-winning writer, workshop facilitator, and director of metaphysical studies at Chesterfield Spiritualist College. In this in-depth study into the mystery and purpose of angels, she looks at the angelic dimensions of spiritual traditions around the world from the ancient past to present day.

Willie Edward Taylor Carver Jr. holds degrees in French and English from Morehead State University, where he focused his studies on advocacy for students. In Gay Poems for Red States, Carver counters the injustice of a persistent anti-LGBTQ+ movement by asserting that a life full of beauty and pride is possible for everyone.

After having spent over 20 years as a university researcher and professor, Valerie Askren traded academia for the hardwood forests of Kentucky. Inside Five-Star Trails you’ll find descriptions of 40 five-star hiking trails for all levels and interests, as well as insight into the history, flora, and fauna of the routes.

Stephen Bright teaches at the law schools at Yale and Georgetown Universities. He spent over 40 years representing people facing the death penalty. The Fear of Too Much Justice is an examination of injustices occurring in criminal courts today and a practical look at how they can be corrected.

Dr. Moss has served as a guest lecturer on surgery at Harvard University’s Medical Grand Rounds and as a guest faculty member at Yale University. My Recovery Companion is an alphabetical, easy-to-reference handbook to use in moments of struggle, or when confronted by challenging life and addiction issues.

Heather Henson is an award-winning author of several books for young readers. Her most recent YA novel, Wrecked, is a contemporary retelling of Shakespeare’s The Tempest set in rural Kentucky, which Publisher’s Weekly called an “explosive thriller.”

Cynthia Ellingsen is an Amazon Charts and Apple Books bestselling author. In A Play for Revenge, a single mother must solve the mystery of the town theater to learn why it was shut down and stop the forces trying to keep it closed.

Justin Arnold is a storyteller, occasional comedian, and junk food connoisseur. Wicked Little Things is the story of the recently outed 16-year-old Dane Craven who is forced to return to his unbearably small hometown of Jasper Hollow.

Jennifer S. Kelly is a writer and journalist whose work has appeared in TwinSpires, Paulick Report, America’s Best Racing, and The Racing Biz. This book examines the racing legacies of Gallant Fox and Omaha and how William Woodward’s service to racing during the 20th century changed the landscape of the American Thoroughbred industry.

Martha Greenwald is the editor of the anthology Who We Lost: A Portable COVID Memorial and Founding Director/Curator of The WhoWeLost Project. Her first collection of poetry, Other Prohibited Items, was the winner of the Mississippi Review Poetry Series. She is the winner of the 2020 Yeats Prize.

House is the New York Times bestselling author of six novels and one book of creative nonfiction. Lark Ascending follows Lark and his impromptu family of fellow refugees as they struggle to find a haven in a near-future world of widespread ecological, political and civil dangers.

Former Poet Laureate of Kentucky and 2022 NAACP Image Award Winner, Crystal Wilkinson has released a new book titled Perfect Black. This captivating collection of poetry and prose, beautifully blending her rural roots with a passion for language and storytelling, all interwoven with striking illustrations from her long-time partner, Ronald W. Davis.

A longtime newspaper reporter and editor, David Wesley Williams, lives in Memphis, TN, with his wife, Barb, and their two retired racing greyhounds. The story of Everybody Knows introduces a raft of characters, including musicians, an escaped felon, a tyrannical governor atop his state’s old electric chair, various and likable sidekicks and mistresses, and even a writer.

Libby Falk Jones is a member of Bluegrass Writers Studio and Berea Writers Circle, she currently co-directs Coming of Age, a writing program for Kentucky women over 55. This collection includes poems appearing in Jones’ two previous chapbooks as well as poems published in a variety of journals and anthologies over the past three decades.

Kim Wickens grew up in Dallas, TX, and practiced as a criminal defense lawyer in New Mexico for twenty years. Lexington is the dramatic true story of the champion Thoroughbred racehorse who gained international fame in the tumultuous Civil War-era South, and became the most successful sire in American racing history.

Andrew Welsh-Huggins’s short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Mystery Magazine and other publications. The End of the Road is a standalone crime novel about a young woman’s quest for vengeance after her boyfriend is shot and left for dead.

Veteran sportswriter Jamie H. Vaught has covered the University of Kentucky’s basketball program since his early college days. If you feel nostalgic for UK’s glorious basketball past, this 408-page hardcover could be of interest! It also contains football stories and inside accounts about the Kentucky Wildcats.

Jayne Moore Waldrop is a writer and attorney who loves telling stories about her native western Kentucky. Michael McBride is a Tennessee-based artist and a professor at Tennessee State University. A Journey in Color: The Art of Ellis Wilson tells the story of a young man’s determined path to become a classically trained artist.

Julian R. Vaca is a first generation Mexican American and a first-generation college graduate. The story in The Memory Index is set in an alternative 1987, where a disease ravages human memories. There is no cure, only artificial recall. The lucky ones, ”the recollectors” need the treatment only once a day.

Carissa Turpin currently resides in Louisville, KY, where she teaches fifth and seventh grade Language Arts. Doomsday Dani is a story about a twelve-year-old preparing for Y2K or, in her view, the end of the world.

Lauren Thoman lives outside of Nashville, TN, with her husband, two children, and a rotating number of dogs and fish. I’ll Stop the World is a mystery thriller, where the end and the beginning become one in a coming-of-age story about the power of friendship, fate, and inexplicable second chances.

For over a decade, Jessica D. Thompson served as a crisis office volunteer as well as a hospital and legal advocate for a battered women’s shelter. Daybreak and Deep is a rich and graceful assembly of requiems, for family and home places, for a spouse. Jessica D. Thompson honors, then abandons the innocence of childhood and the prescribed gender roles imbued with religion and tradition.

Emily Strasser’s award-winning essays have appeared in Ploughshares, Colorado Review, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, and elsewhere. In Half-Life of a Secret: Reckoning with a Hidden History, Emily Strasser exposes the toxic legacy political that forever polluted her family, a community, the nation, and the world.

Matthew Strandmark is an educator, researcher, and archivist. Gatewood: Kentucky’s Uncommon Man weaves together personal stories, public records, and oral history interviews to provide a comprehensive overview of the life and career of an eccentric and fascinating figure.

Christopher Stallard is the head chef and owner of Michael Grant Gastronomy in Louisville, KY. In Waste into Taste, Stallard presents an inspiring collection of practical techniques and delicious recipes, some new, some honed throughout his distinguished culinary career, for utilizing scraps of various foods to eliminate waste and lower grocery costs.

Mariama J. Lockington is an adoptee, author, and educator. Forever is Now is a powerful young adult novel-in-verse about mental health, love, family, Black joy, and finding your voice and power in an unforgiving world.

Matthew Mitchell is a three-time SEC Coach of the Year and the winningest head coach in the history of the University of Kentucky’s basketball program. In clear, straightforward style, Matthew Mitchell reveals the tools that made him and his teams successful: honesty, hard work, and discipline.

Robert R. Adams devotes his free time to reading history and veteran affairs. This work details the constant emotional and psychological struggles of a scared young combat soldier, as his experiences transformed him from a boy into manhood through the forced maturity of war.

Will Hillenbrand is a celebrated author and illustrator whose published works include over 70 books for young readers. The Voice in the Hollow tells the story of a young mouse whose shortcut home turns into a fantastical journey.

An accomplished painter, fiber artist, and photographer, Karen Abney has exhibited at several galleries across the region. Lonnie & Twyla Money is the story of two iconic Kentucky artists who have been making folk art pieces for nearly 50 years and have helped to shape this unique Appalachian art form.

Patricia L. Hudson is a freelance writer and former contributing editor for Americana magazine. Traces is a retelling of Boone’s saga through the eyes of his wife, Rebecca, and her two oldest daughters, Susannah and Jemima..

Georgia Day holds a B.A. in Literary Studies from the University of Texas at Dallas and has dreamed of being a writer her entire life. Of Sand and Bone is a story about breaking with traditions in favor of forging a new path.

Barbara Pendleton Jones is a retired psychologist living in Virginia. This volume, researched and written by Tula’s great-niece, relates with empathy and insight the remarkable story of Tula’s life. It also collects, for the first time, all of her extant stories.

Jessica Ward is a pseudonym for the #1 New York Times bestselling author who writes as J.R. Ward and has over 20 million copies in print. She enjoys spending time in the Adirondacks and lives in the south with her family and her dogs.

Frank X Walker, the first African American writer to be named Kentucky Poet Laureate, is an artist, writer, and educator who has published eleven collections of poetry. Upfromsumdirt is an award-winning artist and an author of several poetry collections. This inspired children’s alphabet book is an exuberant celebration of the people, physical spaces, and historical events.

Robyn Ryle is the author of two award-winning nonfiction books. Throw Like a Girl, Cheer Like a Boy brings to attention the ways in which sports can contribute to inequalities while also demonstrating how sports can help create a more just world for everyone.

Roberta Schultz, author of four chapbooks and one full-length collection, is a songwriter, teacher, and poet from Wilder, KY. In Asking Price, questions are key to examining humanity’s relationship to the planet we live on.

Julia Seales is a writer and screenwriter based in Los Angeles. In A Most Agreeable Murder when a wealthy bachelor drops dead at a ball, a young lady takes on the decidedly improper role of detective in this action-packed debut comedy of manners and murder.

While not a single battle of the War of 1812 was fought on Kentucky soil, Kentuckians were involved from the very beginning to the very end. Multi-genre author Doris Dearen Settles explains how Kentuckians won the war of 1812, and why it is far more significant than textbooks record.

Bobbi Dawn Rightmyer is a lifelong native of Harrodsburg, KY and she writes books of narrative historical nonfiction. In 1774, James Harrod founded the oldest permanent English settlement west of the Allegheny Mountains. Harrod was a soldier and pioneer who was instrumental in exploration of the area.

Christopher Rowe has been a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, Neukom Institute, and Theodore Sturgeon Awards. The Navigating Fox is a fantastical fable of knowledgeable creatures, in the vein of Brian Jacques’s Redwall series but for adults.

Megan Lynch is the author of young adult and middle grade novels and lives in Nashville, TN. Bone Carnival is a spooky novel about the mystical summer adventures of a 12-year-old troublemaker in Rome, Italy.

Teresa Richards’ novels have received Editors Pick, Best Book, and Top Pick distinctions from Evernight Teen, LASR, and Night Owl Reviews. Her newest novel, Flippin’ Skaters, won a first chapter contest award at the SCBWI Mid-south fall conference prior to publication.

YOU are fighting for freedom from enslavement for yourself and others during the mid-1800s. Will you escape to freedom? And will you help others escape as part of the Underground Railroad’s network of freedom fighters? Step back in time to face the challenges and decisions that real people faced to escape slavery.

Lisa Parker is a native Virginian, a poet, musician, and photographer. Her first book, This Gone Place, won the 2010 ASA Weatherford Award, her second book, The Parting Glass, won the 2021 Arthur Smith Poetry Prize.

Jeremy Popkin, a long-time history professor at the University of Kentucky, turns his research and writing skills to the story of his grandmother, Zelda Popkin, a journalist, public relations woman and novelist who took part in and wrote about all the big issues of her time, including women’s rights, the Holocaust, and the creation of the Jewish state of Israel.

Katherine C. Mooney is James P. Jones Associate Professor of History at Florida State University. In Isaac Murphy: The Rise and Fall of a Black Jockey, Mooney uncovers the history of Murphy’s troubled life, his death in 1896 at age 35, and his legacy.

From debut author Wes Molebash comes this video-game-inspired sci-fi adventure series. Join Travis as he dodges bullies, forges friendships, and perfects his science fair project…all while trying to fulfill his magical destiny.

Marta Miranda-Straub is an Afro-Caribean Latinx woman born in Cuba. Lullaby for Maddie is a book for young readers. It tells the birth story of a sassy little mermaid named Madelyn who begrudgingly joins the humans and grows to find warmth and love in the arms of her Cuban family.

Susan Mills is the founder of a nonprofit organization called My Autism Tribe, based in Lexington, KY. The organization supports families and educates communities about autism. Her books are conversation starters that can help families and educators embrace differences and celebrate diversity.

Norman Minnick is the author of several collection of poetry and the editor of The Lost Etheridge: Uncollected Poems of Etheridge Knight. This book features over 300 poems by the award-winning Black Arts Movement poet, Etheridge Knight.

John Winn Miller is an award-winning investigative reporter, foreign correspondent, editor, newspaper publisher, screenwriter, movie producer, and novelist. The Hunt for the Peggy C is about an American fugitive who struggles to rescue a Jewish family on his rusty cargo ship

After a long career as a professional musician and educator, having written several instructional texts along the way, Frank Messina turned his attention to writing fiction in 2016. The Bluegrass Files: Broken Glass invites you into the world of Sonia Vitale and the ladies of Bluegrass Confidential Investigations.

Alexandra V. Mendez is a writer, teacher, and scholar who grew up bilingual in Decatur, GA, with family roots in Mexico and Mississippi. What the Jaguar Told Her explores themes of identity, friendship, crushes, loss, and looking for answers to life’s toughest questions in sumptuous detail.

Bill Meegan is retired from full time clinical practice and teaching in the graduate programs at the University of Kentucky and The Lexington Theological Seminary. Remembering the Forgotten Merton is the first book about Thomas Merton’s brother. The life of John Paul Merton illustrates that there is more than one way to live a meaningful and holy life.

Tif Marcelo is a veteran US Army nurse and holds a BS in Nursing and an MS in public administration. When Jasmine Blooms is a timeless tale of motherhood inspired by Little Women about one woman’s grief, hope, and second chance with the daughter she lost.

Keven McQueen is author of 22 books covering American history, the supernatural, biography, historical true crime, and what he calls real-life surrealism. Enjoy stories of body snatchers, ghosts, bizarre demises, people who uncannily predicted their own deaths, strangely preserved bodies, and much more.

Erin Keane is the author of the memoir Runaway: Notes on the Myths That Made Me (Belt Publishing), one of NPR’s best books of 2022. She received her MFA in poetry from Spalding University and is the author of three collections of poems. Keane is also an award-winning journalist.

Janet Holloway is the founder of Women Leading Kentucky, a non-profit organization that provides educational and leadership opportunities for women. Ain’t Nobody’s Business If I Do is a collection of short stories focused on the author’s Appalachian pioneering, bootlegging granny Billie.

Monic Ductan lives in Cookeville, TN, where she teaches literature and creative writing at Tennessee Tech University. The stories in Daughters of Muscadine feature people whose voices have been suppressed and erased for too long: Black women, rural women, Appalachian women, and working-class women.

Ohio-born author Cinda Williams Chima is a New York Times best-selling author of the Seven Realms, Heir Chronicles, and Shattered Realms teen fantasy series. Her newest duology, The Runestone Saga, (Balzer + Bray) launched fall 2022 with Children of Ragnarok. It marries Norse mythology and magic with Viking adventure, swordplay, romance and cut-throat politics.

Meredith is a picture book author who strives to tell authentic stories that reflect kids’ uniqueness, wonder, and magic. She is an activist and advocate, committed to a more just, more joyful world. She loves playing board games that go on too long, making mini books, and singing show tunes (when she’s sure no one is around). Born and raised in Lexington, Kentucky, Meredith could often be found in bookstores and libraries when she was young. Now a children’s librarian, Meredith lives in San Francisco with her two sons.

A former first grade teacher and school librarian, Debbie Dadey is the author and co-author of 182 traditionally published books. Ghosts Don’t Eat Potato Chips is a graphic novel about Eddie and Howie’s adventures investigating the mystery of disappearing potato chips.

Kentucky author and voice talent P. Anastasia has written two children’s books and ten novels. The Raven is the story of Aidan Grey, a twelve-year-old student at P.O.E. Academy where the curriculum includes the works of Edgar Allan Poe.

Linda Elisabeth LaPinta is the author of four previous books and hundreds of articles and book reviews. In Kentucky Quilts and Quiltmakers, the author provides a panoramic view of Kentucky quiltmaking from colonial America through the American Revolution, through the Civil War and the 1900s, to the new millennium and the dynamic quilting industry of today.

A founding member of the Bluegrass Writers Coalition, Chris Helvey is also the editor-in-chief and publisher of Trajectory Journal. Last Train to Miami is a mystery thriller about Moe Horwitz, a mafia hit man in the 1960s.

Tracey Buchanan crashed into the literary world when she was six and won her first writing award. Toward the Corner of Mercy and Peace is a story about the power of forgiveness and why it’s worth it to let others into your life, even when it hurts.