Ekphrastic poetry course publishes anthology “Provokable” inspired by artworks in UK Art Museum

By Francis Von Mann 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Apr. 9, 2026) - Students from Erik Reece's Ekphrastic Poetry course at the University of Kentucky's MFA Creative Writing program have self-published a collection of poems titled "Provokable: Writing Inspired by the University of Kentucky Art Museum." 

The cover of "Provokable: Ekphrastic Writing Collection," a poetry anthology, propped against a stone ledge outdoors in front of a brick building. The cover features a watercolor illustration of a tree with flames rising from its branches set against an orange and amber sky.

On the cover, smoke billows from a burning tree set on rolling hills. The EkphrastiCats wanted an illustration that tied back to common themes in the collection and its title.

The collection pairs each poem with a full-color reproduction of the artwork that inspired it. It grew out of English 608: Ekphrastic Writing, a graduate course that began in fall 2025, and is the result of a close collaboration with UK Art Museum Director Stuart Horodner, Curator Rachel Hooper and Registrar Margaret Bond, who invited the MFA students to explore the museum's galleries and see what the work "provoked" in them creatively. 

The Greek word "ekphrasis" is often translated as "description," and the form has a long history of writers responding to visual art. In his introduction to the anthology, Reece, a professor in the Department of English, explains that modern ekphrastic writing might begin with simply describing a work, but then "might set a still painting in narrative motion," or "venture into memory, polemic, psychology and beyond." 

Reece encouraged the class to turn their poems into a published collection. Taking on the project, a group of student editors named Samantha Ratcliffe, Lora Eli Smith, Victor Unachukwu and Elizabeth Von Mann dubbed themselves the "EkphrastiCats" and led the project from start to finish. 

Elizabeth Von Mann, a first-year candidate in the MFA program and one of the EkphrastiCats editors, found the experience especially valuable. "Everyone in our class was so talented," she says. "Our discussions on ekphrasis and Erik's writing assignments really helped encourage my creativity. It was a great class to be in for my first semester in the program." 

The public is invited to celebrate the book's launch on Tuesday, April 15 at 6 p.m. at the UK Art Museum. The event will include a reading of selected works from the collection, and copies of "Provokable" will be available at the launch.