By Whitney Hale

University of Kentucky senior Rachel Dixon, of Lexington, was recently named a finalist for the Rhodes Scholarship. Dixon, an English and writing, rhetoric and digital studies major, will interview for the prestigious scholarship that funds graduate study at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.

Rhodes Scholars are chosen not only for their outstanding scholarly achievements, but for their character, commitment to others and to the common good, and for their potential for leadership in whatever domains their careers may lead.

A UK Honors College member and former ambassador, Dixon is a

By Kody Kiser

“Affrilachia” is the word coined by poet Frank X Walker to signify the importance of the African-American presence in Appalachia, and he's a founding member of the Affrilachian Poets. Walker says he has "accepted the responsibility of challenging the notion of a homogeneous all-white literary landscape in this region.”

By Samantha Almedia

Two University of Kentucky students received nationwide recognition at Confucius Institute U.S. Center’s inaugural National Honor Gala held Sept. 24.

David Cole and Rachel Lietzow, both members of the UK Honors Program, were acknowledged among eight individuals from across the nation with a People to People Exchange Award for creating cross-cultural connections and initiatives between China and the United States.

"Never have I found myself surrounded by people who I couldn't verbally understand, but I wholeheartedly felt a connection toward," said Cole, honoree and UK senior majoring in English. A native of Monticello, Kentucky, Cole participated

By Gail Hairston

By Gail Hairston

By Whitney Hale

A duo of popular poets, Lisa Russ Spaar and Bianca Lynne Spriggs, will present workshops on the form as well as a joint reading of their poetry at the 2016 Kentucky Women Writers Conference running Sept. 16-17, in Lexington. The pair's work will also be among the topics of a free poetry workshop presented by the conference June 11, at the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning.

Lisa Russ Spaar, one of three finalists for the 2015 Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching, is the author of many collections of poetry, including "Glass Town," "Blue Venus," "Satin Cash," "

By Jennifer T. Allen

The 25th volume of Social Theory journal disClosure was recently released focusing on the topic of “Transnational Lives.” The issue’s theme brings together a variety of genres, including creative pieces, analytical articles, interviews and art, as it explores concepts related to the topic.

“Simple words such as ‘home’ or ‘religion’ take on an entirely new meaning when they are considered across transnational spaces,” said Catherine Gooch, co-editor of the issue and graduate student in the Department of English. “In addition, there are larger implications both on a personal and public level. If we think about our economic system and how globalization has caused capitalism to expand transnationally, around the world, we see how this economic expansion impacts everything from our personal lives to the higher education system.”

Dr. Mahmood

(June 2, 2016) — Award-winning Native American poet Natalie Diazwill open the 2016 Kentucky Women Writers Conference, running Sept. 16-17, in Lexington. Diaz's work will also be among the topics of a free poetry workshop presented June 11, at the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning.

Poet Natalie Diaz reads from her first poetry collection "When My Brother Was an Aztec."

Natalie Diaz was born and raised in the Fort Mojave Indian Village in Needles, California, on the banks of the Colorado River. She is Mojave and an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian Tribe. Her first poetry collection, 

Relying on her native American roots for her first novel, “Maud’s Line,” University of Kentucky alumna and Lexington businesswoman Margaret Verble has been named a Finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction.

The Pulitzer Committee described “Maud’s Line” as “A novel whose humble prose seems well-suited to the remote American milieu it so engagingly evokes: the Indian allotments of 1920s Oklahoma.”

“Maud’s Line” is set in 1928, a year after the worst Mississippi River flood in history, a year before the Great Depression, and only a handful of years before the devastating droughts that eventually led to America’s Great Dust Bowl – difficult years for the Cherokee Nation. The story focuses on Maud Nail, a young Cherokee woman yearning for a better life

By Weston Loyd

(April 28, 2016) — Two current University of Kentucky Gaines Fellows, David Cole and Abby Schroering, have successfully completed their jury projects, a requirement to complete the first year of their fellowship, by creating podcasts on two culture fields with experts from right here in Lexington.

Cole, a junior English major from Monticello, Kentucky, has created a series of “Zen podcasts” that explore the world of video games. The podcasts, which are not heavily edited, lets the conversation of his interviews with local video game developers flow naturally. The goal for these podcasts is to showcase the developers and their video games to a larger audience and prove that Lexington is producing both high quantity and quality artistic work that very few cities of its

By Blair Hoover

(April 27, 2016) — Provost Tim Tracy honored five faculty members and four teaching assistants with Provost's Outstanding Teaching Awards at the 2016 UK Faculty Awards Ceremony. The William B. Sturgill Award and the Albert D. and Elizabeth H. Kirwan Memorial Prize were also awarded at the ceremony. The ceremony took place Thursday, April 21, in the Lexmark Public Room in the Main Building.

The William B. Sturgill Award was awarded to Carl Mattacola, a professor in the rehabilitation sciences program in the College of Health Sciences.

The Albert D. and Elizabeth H. Kirwan Memorial Prize was awarded to Gary J. Ferland, a physics and astronomy professor in the College of Arts and

By Kathy Johnson, Kelli Meyer

(April 27, 2016) — University of Kentucky Professor Andrew Hippisley has been selected to participate in the American Council on Education's (ACE) ACE Fellows Program, the longest running leadership development program in the United States. Hippisley, in the College of Arts and Sciences' Department of English, is one of 33 emerging college and university leaders chosen for the 2016-17 class of ACE Fellows.

Hippisley joined the UK faculty in 2007 as an assistant professor of linguistics and became a full professor in 2012. He is director of the Linguistics Program in the College of Arts and

By Gail Hairston

(April 19, 2016) — Manuel Gonzales stepped away from the restraints of traditional literary genre to create a story that twists not only the plot, but the characters as well. In so doing, “The Regional Office Is Under Attack!”, the first novel published by the University of Kentucky assistant professor of English and creative writing, has sparked the imagination of one reviewer after another.

Kelly Braffet of The New York Times Book Review is one of the most recent writers to review 

By Gail Hairston

(April 18, 2016) — In an NPR interview two years ago — a conversation occasioned by the release of her fifth novel, “Boy, Snow, Bird” — Helen Oyeyemi explained why she had lived in half a dozen European cities before the age of 30.

“I feel a need to choose a city or have a feeling that it chooses me," Oyeyemi said.

Whether Lexington chose her or she chose Lexington, is debatable and irrelevant. University of Kentucky students and English professors are simply glad that this Oyeyemi story had a happy ending for UK.

After all, being a believer in magical, malevolent forces, Oyeyemi gleefully writes stories with unhappily-ever-after endings. For which, she is completely unapologetic.

"I would be that kind of psychologist who says 'You're absolutely right — there are monsters

By Ashley Cox

(April 8, 2016) — Peter Fallon, poet and founder and director of Gallery Press, Ireland's preeminent publisher of poetry and drama, will explore the tradition of Irish literary publishing as part of the 2016 International Hammer Book Arts Biennale Lecture presented April 12. As part of his visit Fallon will also deliver a poetry reading on campus April 13. Both events are free and open to the public.

Fallon's Hammer Biennale Lecture, “The Purpose of Praise: Extending the Tradition of Irish Literary Publishing,” is the seventh in the history of the lectureship. The lecture will begin 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 12, in the Great Hall, on the second floor of the 

By Andrea Gils Monzon, Gail Hairston

(March 29, 2016) — The University of Kentucky Division of Undergraduate Education and UK Education Abroad recently awarded $5,000 for the spring 2016 Undergraduate Research Abroad Scholarships (UGRAS) to junior biology student, Holden Hemingway; senior equine science student, Haley Reichenbach; and senior English and philosophy double major, Alexander Parmley. All three awardees will be conducting independent research projects abroad this summer.

“UGRAS gives students the opportunity to participate in original, cutting-edge research and promotes interaction with international scholars through immersion in the research environment,” said Evie

By Tasha Ramsey

Speech is an integral part of our development as children and one that continues to develop throughout our lives. Because of this, we don't often spend much time thinking about speech and what it reveals about our identities. However, one professor in the Linguistics Program at the University of Kentucky spends much of his time researching the aspects of speech and social identity. 

According to Dr. Kevin McGowan, Assistant Professor in the Linguistics Program in the College of Arts & Sciences, "Every time we open our mouths to speak we convey not only the words we intend to say but also who we are, where we’re from, how we feel about what we’re saying, how we feel about our listener, how healthy we feel, and the list just goes on and on."

McGowan received a Ph.D. in linguistics

Watch why Gurney Norman, a renowned writer, is thrilled to be named a 2016 Great Teacher and why he loves working one-on-one with the young writers his classes within UK's College of Arts and Sciences.