By Whitney Hale

Writer and alumnus John W. Egerton will receive the 2013 University of Kentucky Libraries Award for Intellectual Achievement. The award will be presented at the UK Libraries Annual Dinner scheduled for April 19, at Griffin Gate Marriott, located at 1800 Newtown Pike. As part of the dinner, Egerton will talk about the place of libraries and the future of paper in the cyber age.

The UK Libraries Award for Intellectual Achievement recognizes high intellectual achievement while encouraging education and promoting creativity throughout the Commonwealth. Candidates must have been born in

By Whitney Hale

Florida playwright Jo Morello has won the second biennial Prize for Women Playwrights presented by the Kentucky Women Writers Conference (KWWC) for her full-length play, E.G.O.: The Passions of Eugene Gladstone O'Neill. The prize carries a $500 cash award and a fully staged theatrical production at Balagula Theatre in Lexington, where it will be produced as a world premiere in September 2013. Morello's script was selected by American playwright, television writer and activist Kia Corthron from a pool of

By Whitney Hale, Breanna Shelton

The University of Kentucky Gaines Center for the Humanities has chosen 12 outstanding undergraduates as new scholars for the university's Gaines Fellowship Program for the 2013-14 and 2014-15 academic years. Gaines Fellowships are given in recognition of outstanding academic performance, demonstrated ability to conduct independent research, an interest in public issues and a desire to enhance understanding of the human condition through the humanities.

Gaines Fellowships are awarded for the tenure of a student's junior and senior years, or for the last two years of a five-year program; students in all disciplines and with any intended profession are given equal consideration.

UK's

By Kathy Johnson

Frank X Walker, associate professor of English at the University of Kentucky and recently announced Kentucky poet laureate, was the guest on the March 2 "UK at the Half," which aired during the UK vs. Arkansas game that was broadcast on radio.

"UK at the Half" airs during halftime of each UK football and basketball game broadcast on radio and is hosted by Carl Nathe of UK Public Relations and Marketing.

To hear the "UK at the Half" interview, click here. To view a transcript of the "UK at the Half" interview, click here.

By Whitney Hale, Mack McCormick

University Press of Kentucky (UPK) author bell hooks has been named the recipient of the 2013 Black Caucus of the American Library Association’s (BCALA) Best Poetry Award for her book "Appalachian Elegy: Poetry and Place."

The BCALA Literary Awards recognize excellence in adult fiction, nonfiction, poetry and publishing by African American authors published during the previous year, including an award for Best Poetry and a citation for Outstanding Contribution to Publishing. The award will be presented to hooks at the Annual Conference of the American Library Association

By Whitney Hale

The Kentucky Women Writers Conference will feature best-selling novelist and National Book Award finalist Bonnie Jo Campbell as its keynote speaker at the 2013 conference, scheduled for Sept. 20 and 21.

"Campbell is a fearless teacher and writer whose fiction is shaped by the exigencies of rural Michigan," said Julie Wrinn, director of the Kentucky Women Writers Conference "The vivid sense of place in her work should resonate with Kentuckians, and you might even say that her characters 'kick ass.'"

Bonnie Jo Campbell is the author of the best-selling novel "Once Upon a River" (Norton, 2011), a river odyssey through rural

By Gail Hairston, Amy Jones, and Kody Kiser

The University of Kentucky Alumni Association presented its 2013 Great Teacher Awards to six recipients last night at a recognition dinner,  followed by an appearance at Rupp Arena’s center court during halftime of the South Carolina vs. UK basketball game.

The recipients are:

•           Karen Badger, associate professor, College of Social Work

•           Roberta Dwyer, professor, College of Agriculture

•         

The James S. Brown Award is given to honor the memory of Professor James S. Brown, a sociologist on the faculty of the University of Kentucky from 1946 to 1982, whose pioneering studies of society, demography, and migration in Appalachia (including his ethnography of “Beech Creek”) helped to establish the field of Appalachian Studies at U.K. and beyond.

The Award supports graduate student research on the Appalachian region. To be eligible, students must be actively enrolled in a master’s or doctoral degree program at U.K. The Award must be used to meet costs of doing research relevant to social life in Appalachia including travel, lodging, copying, interviewing, ethnography, data collection, archival research, transcribing, and other legitimate research expenses. Except under special circumstances, awards will not exceed $1,500. The award does not cover registration or travel

by Sarah Geegan

English professor and 2011 National Book Award winner Nikky Finney was recently appointed the inaugural Guy Davenport Endowed English Professor, an award honoring one of UK's most distinguished professors.

Guy Mattison Davenport, author, poet, painter and critic, retired in 1990 as a UK Distinguished Alumni Professor of English. Throughout his career, he received national and international recognition by several educational and professional institutions for his many achievements. Honoring this legacy, the endowed professorship was made possible through a generous donation to the College of

by Whitney Hale 

The Thomas D. Clark Foundation and the University Press of Kentucky will host a symposium to honor the life and literary legacy of James Still. The Thomas D. Clark Medallion Symposium, which is free and open to the public, will be held 5:30-7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 15, at the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning, located at 251 West Second St.

The symposium will celebrate Still’s posthumous collection of short stories, "The Hills Remember: The Complete Short Stories of James Still," winner of the Thomas D

By Whitney Hale, Amanda Osborne

Award-winning poets Kim Addonizio and Julia Johnson are among the featured presenters at this year's Kentucky Women Writers Conference being held Sept. 21-22, in Lexington. The literary festival will include sold out workshops with both poets, as well as readings and a craft talk that are open to all registrants.

One of the nation's most "provocative and edgy poets," Kim Addonizio is the California poet behind "Tell Me," a collection of poems that was a National Book Award Finalist. Her latest book "Lucifer at the Starlite" was a finalist for the Poets Prize and the Northern CA Book Award. Addonizio also wrote "Ordinary Genius: A Guide for the Poet Within," "Jimmy & Rita," "Little

By Sarah Geegan

The S.T. Roach Community Conversations series, "Rebuilding the Block," will conclude its seven-month sequence on Father's Day weekend by honoring outstanding men in the community.

The Sankofa Awards, honoring African-American men who have demonstrated excellence in the categories of service, social and environmental justice, scholarship, philanthropy, creativity and entrepreneurship, will provide a symbolic end to the series that began in December 2011. Consisting of monthly public forums led by UK experts at

By Sarah Geegan, Amanda Osborn

Imagine being a University of Kentucky student in Lexington, but sharing a "global classroom" with students in China, France or India.  In collaboration with the associate provost for International Affairs and the Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching (CELT), the UK College of Arts and Sciences recently established a program called Global Classroom Connections that will promote international learning and experiences through the use of contemporary technology.

As university graduates increasingly require international perspectives, skills and knowledge to succeed in the multicultural and interconnected world, 

By Whitney Hale

Two students from the University of Kentucky and one 2006 alumna have been selected as recipients of Fulbright U.S. Student Program scholarships. The UK recipients are among 1,700 U.S. citizens who will travel abroad for the 2012-2013 academic year through the prestigious program.

The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. The primary source of funding for the Fulbright Program is an annual appropriation made by the U.S. Congress to the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Participating governments and host institutions, corporations and

Susan Bordo, the Otis A. Singletary Chair in the Humanities and professor of English and Gender & Women's Studies was recently published in the The Chronicle of Higher Education. Click here to read the full article, "When Fictionalized Facts Matter: From 'Anne of the Thousand Days' to Hilary Mantel's new 'Bring Up the Bodies''.

By Sarah Geegan

University of Kentucky students and faculty will travel to Shanghai in May to share Appalachian culture at the American Studies Center at Shanghai University.

The  American Studies Center, funded by a grant from The Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, is one of 10 similar centers in China. In December 2011, UK signed a joint-venture agreement with Shanghai University to pioneer the center on the SU campus.

The facility aims to broaden Chinese understanding of American culture and to foster intellectual and cultural exchange. UK's primary contribution involves providing a perspective of the American South and Appalachia.

"The purpose of the center is to try and counter Hollywood stereotypes of the United States by bringing them a more nuanced

By Whitney Hale

University of Kentucky Gaines Fellow and knitter Catherine Brereton will unveil the final product of the Diversity Project, which sought to create a visual representation of the community through a large piece of yarn-art. The unveiling of this blanket will be part of Gayla, UK OUTsource's birthday bash, scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 26, in the UK Student Center Small Ballroom.

The Diversity Project blanket is one of several festivities being presented at the Gayla. The event will also include drag shows, music and free food. In addition, donations toward a one-time scholarship of $1,000 will be collected by the project. Applications for this scholarship, which will be

By Jonathon Spalding

As a society, we are fascinated by war stories. Movies, television, video games and literature all do their part in capturing something that is so fundamental to human nature, yet so incredibly hard to imagine. From the beginning of time we have huddled around campfires and told each other stories of conflict, complete with a triumphant victory or a symbolic defeat, a hero and an enemy fighting for something worth dying for. Today, most of the images we associate with war are carefully and artificially crafted in a Hollywood studio or neatly twisted into a storyline fit for the nightly news.

But for the soldiers who actually live it, war is not a fictional escape but a harsh reality.

Many veterans struggle with the traumatic events of their wartime service and may never be able to express what they saw “over there.” With the inherent