LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 11, 2020) — The University of Kentucky recognized two College of Arts & Sciences faculty members and three teaching assistants with the 2020 Outstanding Teaching Awards.

This annual award recognizes faculty and graduate teaching assistants who demonstrate special dedication and outstanding performance in the classroom or laboratory. A selection committee based in the Provost's Office for Faculty Advancement and the Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching reviewed nominations and gave the awards. 

"The diversity of disciplines reflected in the Outstanding Teaching Award winners speaks to the breadth and depth of

By Richard LeComte

National events burst into the curriculum of the University of Kentucky when precautions over the novel coronavirus drove instruction online. As the students of Julia Johnson’s large-lecture core creative writing class in UK’s College of Arts & Sciences saw their lives upended, she felt they needed an outlet to express their fears, emotions, and hopes.

“What we were experiencing being in quarantine and a global pandemic situation was something none of us had ever experienced before,” said Johnson, a poet and professor in the Department of English and MFA program in Creative Writing. “And to be a student during this — that adds another level to the experience.”

The result: Nascent poets and writers in both her undergraduate and graduate classes expressed themselves through haiku and other kinds of poetry. Some students then recorded

The 2nd year MFAs are graduating! Our usual end-of-the-year reading happened over Zoom, but it is as fun and bittersweet as always.

Watch the reading here: https://vimeo.com/415145980/1e25f2c5be

Congrats MFA class of '20!

By Richard LeComte

The College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding TA Awards recognize excellence in undergraduate instruction by teaching assistants. Fifteen teaching assistants were recognized for the 2019-2020  academic year .

Eligible students are current A&S graduate student teaching assistants in at least their second year of graduate work and must be responsible for instruction in some or all of a course offered by the College. The TAs recognized this year taught in courses offered through A & S departments and interdisciplinary programs. 

“Graduate Teaching Assistants are fundamental to the high-quality education that the College of Arts & Sciences provides to undergraduate students,” said Sarah M. Lyon, A&S associate dean for graduate studies. “I am routinely impressed with their hard work and the contributions they make to

By Gabriela Antenore

The University of Kentucky Gaines Center for the Humanities has selected 12 undergraduate students as new scholars for the Gaines Fellowship Program.

The Gaines Fellowship is presented 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. Founded in 1984 by a gift from John and Joan Gaines, the Gaines Center for the Humanities functions as a laboratory for imaginative and innovative education on UK’s campus. The Gaines Center is designed to enrich the study of the humanities at the

By Richard LeComte

LEXINGTON, Ky – Frank X Walker, professor of English and African American and Africana Studies in the University of Kentucky College of Arts & Sciences, has received two honors for both his recent work and his career accomplishments.

Transylvania University has given the Judy Gaines Young Book Award to Walker for his collection of poems “Last Will, Last Testament.” The award has recognized outstanding works by writers in

By Kathy Johnson

Two people with close ties to the University of Kentucky will be recognized for their achievements with honorary doctorates. The UK Board of Trustees approved awarding an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters to William Harry Clarke and an Honorary Doctor of Humanities to Nikky Finney.

Clarke is professor emeritus of the UK School of Music, where he served for 43 years. He came to UK in 1965 as a teaching assistant for the marching band while working on his doctorate. In 1968, he became director of bands, a position he held for 21 years. During that time, Clarke grew the Wildcat Marching Band from 30 members to 300, expand the band to include women and established the band’s reputation as one of the best in the country. He also served as director of the UK School of Music and received the

By Richard LeComte

A new Africana Saturday School begins this weekend at the historic downtown Lyric Theatre & Cultural Arts Center at 9 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 22.

The Saturday School will be a series of double lectures given once a month through May. The theme for spring 2020 is “New Visions for Black Men: From Maleness to Manhood.” Events start at 9 a.m. and are free to the public.

Frank X Walker, organizer of the event and poet and University of Kentucky English professor in the College of Arts & Sciences, will kick off the series with a talk and reading titled “Honor Thy Mother & Father: Making the Case for a New Vision.” UK faculty participating in the series include Derrick White and Gerald Smith, both UK history professors as well as members of the

By Whitney Hale

Shayla Lawson and Keith Wilson are among the esteemed writers known as the Affrilachian Poets.

The Visiting Writers Series (VWS), hosted by the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program in the University of Kentucky Department of English, is set to welcome Affrilachian Poets Shayla Lawson and Keith Wilson. The free public discussion, presented in partnership with Gaines Center for the Humanities, will begin 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 6, in the William T. Young Library UK Athletics Auditorium.

The VWS began in the spring of 2014 with a reading by poet Roger Reeves. Each year, the

By Lindsey Piercy

Crystal Wilkinson didn't become a writer to obtain fame and fortune. But the accomplished author is receiving some well-deserved recognition and funding to support her craft.

"I am absolutely elated."

Wilkinson, who is also an associate professor of English at the University of Kentucky, has been named a 2020 USA Fellow by United States Artists.

Since being founded in 2006, United States Artists (USA) has awarded unrestricted monetary grants to compelling artists in various disciplines. Following a rigorous nomination and panel process, each chosen fellow is given $50,000 — which can be used for whatever means the

From building play houses out of grass as a child in Danville to writing poetry and publishing books as an adult, Frank X Walker uses his immense imagination to chronicle the African-American experience in Appalachia.

Walker, an alumnus and English professor at UK, has written 10 collections of poetry, several anthologies and many articles and essays. His epic journey begins with a childhood immersed in books and moves on to becoming poet laureate of Kentucky and a chronicler of an often-ignored heritage.

Walker recently was highlighted in the winter issue of Keeneland magazine. Read the full story here.

By Ryan Girves

The University of Kentucky Office of Undergraduate Research recently recognized and awarded 19 students with the Oswald Research and Creativity awards. 

The Oswald Research and Creativity Competition was established in 1964 by then President John Oswald as part of the university’s Centennial Celebration. The program is intended to promote creativity in all fields of study and provides annual awards in seven categories. The competition accepts reports, of all forms of creativity, and scholarship by undergraduate students.

Categories include Biological Sciences; Design, including architecture, landscape architecture, and interior

By Madison Dyment

The true art of writing is the many forms through which it can be expressed. The beauty of one of its most obscure forms, poetry, is not lost on UK College of Arts & Sciences' MFA student, Makalani Bandele, who recently won the Autumn House Press Poetry competition for his latest poetry book. 

Bandele, hailing from Louisville, discovered his love of poetry as an undergraduate student at the University of Notre Dame. After taking an introductory poetry class, he found the style resonated with him over other forms of writing and frequently engaged in the craft. 

“I love to hear people tell stories but my mind just can’t handle the huge banquet that a novel provides,” Bandele said. “With poetry, I’m able to give people a succinct idea while still exploring many different themes in that short piece.” 

Noting his skill, a

This year, the College of Arts & Sciences celebrated the 20th anniversary of its Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Over the last 20 years, we have recognized 79 alumni and faculty whose contributions to the College, University, Commonwealth and beyond are far-reaching. Over the next few weeks, I will be highlighting each of this year’s inductees. This week, I would like to start by recognizing Anne C. Deaton.

Anne graduated from UK in 1967 with Phi Beta Kappa honors and a teaching certificate. She earned an M.A. in Adult Education at the University of Tennessee and an Ed.D. in Adult Education and Aging at Virginia Tech. Her career focused on the socio-economic, health, and public policy issues related to seniors and led to a faculty appointment at the University of Missouri, service as deputy director of Missouri’s Division of Aging and director of the Missouri Division of

By Lindsey Piercy

UK Photo | Pete Comparoni

Tis' the season of giving. If you're looking to support a worthy cause, you can help restock the Big Blue Pantry ahead of Thanksgiving. And, you can do so while enjoying an evening with some of Kentucky's most renowned authors.

On Thursday, Nov. 21, the Department of English in the UK College of Arts and Sciences, will host Wildcats Read for Food. Students, faculty, staff and community members are invited to listen as notable authors with strong ties to the UK community read aloud from their work.

"There's a long history nationally of creative writing

By Danielle Donham

For the second year in a row, Kentucky Humanities will host the Kentucky Book Festival, a full week of signings, conversations, trivia, meals, presentations and activities that serves to celebrate the literary movement within the Commonwealth. Across Lexington, authors and editors from the University Press of Kentucky (UPK) and the University of Kentucky, including alumnus and former UK trustee James Hardymon, author of “Engineering Corporate Success: A Memoir,” will participate in events spanning Sunday, Nov. 10 to Saturday, Nov. 16.

The festival kicked off on Sunday, Nov. 10 at 1 p.m. with eight featured authors at Newport Aquarium’s WAVE on Wheels

The editors of Early American Literature are pleased to announce the sixth annual Early American Literature Book Prize, which will be given for an author’s first academic monograph about American literature through the early national period (roughly 1830). EAL invites work treating Native American traditional expressions, colonial Ibero-American literature from North America, colonial American Francophone writings, Dutch colonial, and German American colonial literature as well as writings in English from British America and the US. The prize is offered in collaboration with the University of North Carolina Press, the Society of Early Americanists, and the MLA’s Forum on Early American Literature.

First monographs published in 2018 or 2019 are eligible for the 2020 prize, which carries a cash award of $2000. 

Lisa Brooks, Professor of English and American Studies at Amherst College, has been selected to receive the 2019 Early American Literature Book Prize, which is awarded in even calendar years to a first monograph published in the prior two years, and in odd years to a second or subsequent book. Brooks’s Our Beloved Kin: A New History of King Philip’s War was published by Yale University Press in 2018. The prize selection committee consisted of Early American Literature’s Advisory Editor, Sandra Gustafson; our Co-Editor for Reviews, Katy Chiles; the next Chair of the Modern Language Association’s Forum on Early American Literature, Duncan Faherty; and the outgoing President of the Society of Early Americanists, Gordon Sayre, with EAL Editor Marion Rust as an ex officio member. We thank our

By Madison Dyment

The UK College of Arts and Sciences is pleased to announce that former English Ph.D. student, Deirdre Mikolajcik, has won the 2019 Trollope Prize graduate essay competition hosted by the University of Kansas.

Mikolajcik recently graduated from the English Ph.D. program in May of 2019. Some of her prominent research interests include Victorian literature, gender and women’s studies, romanticism and poetry.

Mikolajcik’s essay, “Abstract Wealth and Community in The Way We Live Now,” will be published online by The Fortnightly Review with Mikolajcik being awarded $2,000 in prize money.

Judges for the competition claimed Mikolajcik offered “an original discussion of Trollope’s treatment of the challenges posed to individuals and relationship by the investment economy of late 19th century Britain.” They applauded her argument and the insights

Hannah Pittard, nationally acclaimed author and director of the Creative Writing Program in the College of Arts & Sciences Department of English, was recently highlighted as a local luminary in the Chevy Chaser and Southsider. Read her Q&A here.