By Kathy Johnson

Kentucky poet, novelist and environmentalist Wendell Berry has been named the 2012 Jefferson Lecturer in the Humanities by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).  This is the highest honor the federal government betstows for distinguished intellectual achievement in the humanities.

Berry, a University of Kentucky alumnus with a degree in English and former creative writing professor at UK, will deliver the 41st Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities at 7:30 p.m. Monday, April 23, 2012, at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C.  The lecture is titled "It All Turns on Affection."

To read the NEH news release, click here.

This has been a notable year for

By Jessica Powers, Gail Hurston

Every student looks for their niche in college, and often a club exists to unite them with other students who have the same interest. Lodz Pierre, a Haitian native, recognized the minority she represented at the University of Kentucky and decided to create a student organization to unite others with similar heritage and an interest in Caribbean culture by forming the Caribbean Student Association (CASA).

"UK's student population is increasing in diversity, but most of the students are not of Caribbean ancestry. The Caribbean student population at UK is probably one of the most underrepresented minorities on campus," said Pierre, president of CASA. "But despite its small percentage, I believed that the number was great enough to create a club in

By Kathy Johnson

WUKY's "UK Perspectives" focuses on the people and programs of the University of Kentucky and is hosted by WUKY General Manager Tom Godell.  Today's program highlights Frank X Walker, associate professor in the Department of English and recently recognized by Oxford American Magazine as one of the most creative teachers in the South.

To listen to the podcast interview with Walker, from which "UK Perspectives" is produced, click here.

"UK Perspectives" airs at 8:30 a.m. and 5:45 p.m. each Friday on WUKY 91.3, UK's NPR station.

By Jenny Wells

The University of Kentucky Chellgren Center for Undergraduate Excellence has named three new Chellgren Endowed Professors.

The professors are:

Chellgren Endowed Professors maintain an active research program in their discipline; teach courses

By Sarah Geegan

In the second semester of his senior year, University of Kentucky undergraduate Jeremy Puckett is attempting an accomplishment normally undertaken by professors — publishing a book.

Though his book is fiction, Puckett said it reveals a real perspective on the experience of growing up in rural Kentucky. He describes his novel, "Black Bottom Hollow," a horror story set in the Kentucky backwoods, as a way to portray southerners as heroic. 

"There are a lot of stories where Appalachians are the villains," Puckett said. "But I don’t think I’ve ever seen a novel in the horror or fantasy genres that treated them as heroes."

The novel depicts an 8-year-old boy brought back to life by his family after dying in car accident. With black magic,

On Sunday, December 4, English professor and Director of the African American and Africana Studies Program Frank X Walker spoke with hosts Lezell Lowe, Andrea James, and Dr. Sonja Fiest-Price of Groovin 1580AM Lexington. Professor Walker spoke about the Lyric Theater series, "S.T. Roach Community Conversations: Rebuilding the Block". The series is committed to celebrating black male leadership and excellence. Listen to the full interview below.

By Whitney Hale

The LGBT community is quite diverse in Lexington. In hopes of representing and celebrating the population's various differences, University of Kentucky Gaines Fellow and knitter Catherine Brereton has launched the Diversity Project, which seeks to create a visual representation of the community through a large piece of yarn-art. One stitch at a time, Brereton hopes the Diversity Project will create unity.

To finish the final product, a blanket made of 144 squares, Brereton is asking the public to take part in the initiative. There are various ways to participate in the project including a knitting event this weekend beginning at 11 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 20, at Great Bagel, located at 396 Woodland Avenue in Lexington. For more information on this event, visit Facebook at 

By Kathy Johnson

The University of Kentucky Appalachian Center, Appalachian Studies and the Graduate Appalachian Research Community are making a call for papers for the 2012 UK Appalachian Research Symposium and Arts Showcase. The topic of the work must be related to Appalachia, original, and produced in the last three years. 

The deadline for submitting an abstract of work online is midnight Dec. 15. The submission can be made by going to the GARC tab on www.

By Erin Holaday Ziegler

University of Kentucky creative writing Professor  Nikky Finney has won the 2011 National Book Award in Poetry for her recent work, “Head Off & Split.”  Finney attended the award ceremony last night in New York City, where she accepted the highly prestigious honor.

“Head Off & Split” was published by Northwestern University Press in February of this year, and Finney has been touring with the book since late winter.

The National Book Award website says the poems in Finney's "Head Off & Split" "sustain a sensitive and intense dialogue with emblematic figures and events in African-American life: from Civil Rights matriarch Rosa Parks, to former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, from a brazen girl strung out on lightning, to a terrified woman abandoned

By Erin Holaday Ziegler

The University of Kentucky College of Arts & Sciences American Studies Program will host a discussion with the internationally renowned New York Times film critic A.O. Scott this week.

"Film and Reality: A Conversation with A.O. Scott" will take place at 8 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 17 in Memorial Hall on UK's campus. The event is free and open to the public.

American Studies Professor Alan Nadel will be speaking with Scott. Nadel, the William T. Bryan Chair in American Literature and Culture, is currently teaching an undergraduate course in the American Studies Program on the nonfiction novel and documentary films.

"This isn't so

By Whitney Hale

The University of Kentucky Special Collections Library invites the public to an exhibition and symposium celebrating the opening of the papers of Appalachian author Harriette Simpson Arnow. The event will take place at 4 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 17, in the Great Hall, of the Margaret I. King Building. The exhibition of work will run through February 2012.

Harriette Arnow’s papers at UK Libraries provide a broad look at a writer’s life and work.  Included are materials that document her writing process, from first-draft manuscripts on dime store tablets, through various iterations and drafts, to printer page proofs. Also included are correspondence with family, editors, publishers and literary agents. Researchers will find mail from

By Whitney Hale

A number of books featured at the 30th annual Kentucky Book Fair will feature University of Kentucky connections or are from authors working with theUniversity Press of Kentucky (UPK), located on the UK campus. The fair, co-sponsored by UPK, will be from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 12, at the Frankfort Convention Center, in Frankfort, Ky. The Kentucky Book Fair is free and open to the public.

 

Founded in 1981, the Kentucky Book Fair is the state's leading literary event. Over the past 30 years, the fair has recognized outstanding Kentucky authors and editors. The largest and oldest event of its kind in the state, the Kentucky Book Fair will host around 185 authors with

By Cathy Johnson

WUKY's "UK Perspectives" focuses on the people and programs of the University of Kentucky and is hosted by WUKY General Manager Tom Godell.  Today's program highlights UK creative writing Professor Nikky Finney, whose book of poetry "Head Off & Split" is a finalist for this year's National Book Award. She discusses the book and reads a portion of one of her poems.

To listen to the podcast interview with Nikky Finney, from which " UK Perspectives" is produced, click here.

"UK Perspectives" airs at 8:30 a.m. and 5:45 p.m. each Friday on WUKY 91.3, UK's NPR station.

By Erin Holaday Ziegler

The University of Kentucky College of Arts & Sciences welcomes a strategist, futurist and technologist to campus to discuss a timeless and wholly necessary skill.

Craig Saper, a professor in the Language, Literacy, & Culture doctoral program at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, will give a talk titled, "WRD UP 2.0: Teaching\R\E\A\D/I/N/G/ as Genre & Practice," at 3 p.m. Friday, Nov. 11, in Room 211 of the Student Center Addition. Refreshments will be served.

"Teaching has begun to respond to our multi-modal contemporary situation with digital assignments," said organizer Jeff Rice, an associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences' Division

By Erin Holaday Ziegler

The University of Kentucky College of Arts & Sciences will host a trailblazing American diplomat next week to continue the college's Year of China initiative.

Former U.S. Ambassador Julia Chang Bloch will speak on “Leadership and Education in a Globalizing World: China’s Challenge” at 5 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 10, in Room 118 of the White Hall Classroom Building on UK's campus.

Bloch’s talk, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the "Passport to China: Global Issues & Local Understanding" course taught by UK sociology Professor Keiko Tanaka.

Ambassador Bloch, the first Asian-American ambassador in American history, has had a broad career in U.S. government service. She is currently president of the U.S.-China Education Trust, a nonprofit

By Erin Holaday Ziegler, Andrew Jarrells

Lexington's Isaac Murphy Bicycle Club grew out of writer and avid cycler Frank X Walker's vision. The English professor and director of UK's African American and Africana Studies Program wanted to link inner city children to Lexington's Legacy Trail by providing them with bicycles and the equipment needed to enjoy a bike ride.

Furthermore, Walker wanted young participants to have access to mentors; mentors would provide training, education and diet guidance to Lexington's youth.

The bicycle club is named for Isaac Murphy, who grew up on the East End of Lexington, was a three-time Kentucky Derby

By Erin Holaday Ziegler

The University of Kentucky's revamped UK Core Composition and Communication classes combine historically united concepts, while giving students the interactive skills they need for the future.

"This is the only program in the United States that we're aware of in which communication faculty from another department —  actually, another college  —  and writing faculty are collaborating on a joint curriculum," said Roxanne Mountford, director of the Division of Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Media in the College of Arts and Sciences. 

UK sophomore Jake Allgeier will remember his Composition and Communication classes (CIS 110 and 111 or WRD 110 and 111) for years to come.

The civil engineering student

A creative writing professor at the University of Kentucky has been named a finalist for the 2011 National Book Award in Poetry. English professor Nikky Finney was named for the prestigious award for her recent work, “Head Off & Split,” on Oct 12.

“Head Off & Split” was published by Northwestern University Press in February of this year, and Finney has been touring with the book since late winter. 

"As an artist and a daughter of the South, and as someone who honors my feelings as often as I can, I don't have to acquiesce to the polite expectations of the moment," the Provost’s Distinguished Service Professor has said. "I have watched black people forgive and forget over and over again … I too forgive, but I don't forget … My responsibility as a poet, as an artist is to not look away."

Finney, a

By Katy Bennett, Student Activities Board

“Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words,” a famous poet once said. Come hear from poets who call Kentucky home at the third installment of the James Baker Hall Writer’s Series at 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 13, in the Student Center Small Ballroom. This event is free and sponsored by the Student Activities Board.

James Baker Hall was a renowned Kentucky writer, UK faculty member, intense Wildcat fan, and ultimately an interesting person. This series is dedicated to writers who have been raised or influenced by living in Kentucky and designed as a memorial to Baker Hall. This week the series will feature poets Erik Reece and Maureen Morehead.

Reece is a writer of prose and poetry and is the author of two acclaimed books and numerous essays and articles

James Baker Hall was a renowned Kentucky writer, UK faculty member, intense Wildcat fan and ultimately an interesting person. In his honor, the Student Activities Board and the College of Arts and Sciences have partnered to host the James Baker Hall Writers Series. This series is dedicated to writers who have been raised or influenced by living in Kentucky and designed as a memorial to James Baker Hall. The second installment of this series is from 5:30-7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 29, in the Student Center's Worsham Theater. This event is free and sponsored by SAB.

This week, the series features authors Kelly Norman Ellis, Ellen Hagan and Nikky Finney. Expanding from the slam poetry movement, the writers will be reading their work and sharing