By Lindsey Piercy

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Aug. 6, 2021) — Before you know it, summer will be coming to a close. But there’s still time to get lost in a good book.

We asked the University of Kentucky community to recommend books they feel would make good additions to anyone’s summer reading list.

In the descriptions below, faculty members from the College of Arts and Sciences share the books they can’t put down. Pulling from the worlds of history and fiction — their picks explore timely themes while providing intriguing insights.

“A Time of Gifts” by Patrick Leigh Fermor

Recommended by Phil Harling, chair of the Department

By University Press of Kentucky, UK Libraries and Danielle Donham

LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 9, 2021) —  Thanks to University Press of Kentucky and librarians from the UK Libraries, here's a short list to of summer reading tips from University of Kentucky faculty members, alumni and local community members.

With topics ranging from food and beverages, history and geography to fiction and sports — there’s something for every reader and every interest. 

Athletics and Sports

“

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 7, 2021) — Crystal Wilkinson is an associate professor of English at the University of Kentucky and an award-winning author. Her novel, "The Birds of Opulence," was the winner of the 2016 Ernest J. Gaines Prize for Literary Excellence. She is also the author of "Water Street" and "Blackberries, Blackberries." She also has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and her short stories, poems and essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies including most recently in Oxford American and Southern Cultures. 

Most recently, she was named the state’s poet laureate for 2021-2022, the first time a Black woman has been appointed to the prestigious post.

In this

Note: Photo is courtesy of Katie Kelley of the Hazard Herald. Photo shows Gurney Norman with Mandi Fugate Sheffel.

By Richard LeComte

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Gurney Norman received an unusual honor of late when a Kentucky town named an affordable-housing development after him. 

Norman, professor of English in the University of Kentucky’s College of Arts & Sciences, was named Poet Laureate for the Commonwealth of Kentucky 2009 and is known for such works as “Kinfolks: The Wilgus Stories” and “Divine Right’s Trip: A Folk-Tale.” His most recent book, “Allegiance: Stories,” is due out in the summer of 2021 in hardcover from Old Cove Press, distributed by Ohio University Press. 

And now he's the namesake of Gurney’s Bend outside Hazard, Kentucky. 

Work on the 15-house

By Akhira Umar

LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 20, 2021) — Leaning into his excitement to showcase “America and her people,” one University of Kentucky  alumnus has graduated from the Big Blue Nation to the big screen.

Academy Award and Emmy Award winning filmmaker Paul Wagner, who earned a master’s in communication in 1972 from the College of Communication and Information and a bachelor's in English in 1970 from the College of Arts & Sciences, has produced and directed more than 40 films in his over 40-year career. His affinity for film, however, arose not from a specific passion but from a general interest in communication.

Growing up, Wagner wasn’t always the best student, until he started UK 's master’s program in communication. The atmosphere of respectable faculty and likable peers

By Carl Nathe and Kody Kiser

LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 11, 2021) — Four decades ago, Northern Ireland native Jonathan Allison earned an exchange scholarship to pursue graduate study in the United States.

His original plan was to earn a master’s degree then return to his homeland to resume his career of teaching literature and poetry to high school students. Instead he wound up earning a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan and decided to become a college professor in America.

It became the good fortune of the University of Kentucky to hire Allison to join the faculty of the Department of English in the College of Arts and Sciences in 1988. He’s been at UK ever since and currently serves as chair of this esteemed department.

By Lindsey Piercy

LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 29, 2021) — Luke Glaser was once a struggling math student. Academically, he often excelled. But learning polynomials, as well as quadratic equations and functions, just didn’t seem applicable to his life as a high school teenager.

“I hated math, and I took AP classes to simply not have to take math in college.”

But 10 years later, in one of life’s little ironies, Glaser finds himself at the head of the classroom teaching AP Calculus.

“The biggest challenge wasn’t going to be re-learning integrals or derivatives but convincing students that taking the hard classes are worth it.”

As the AP instructor at Hazard High School, Glaser understands his seniors are facing an exhilarating but daunting decision — where to go to college.

Congrats to Prof. Crystal Wilkinson, and first year MFA in fiction, Chioma Ezeano, on winning the O. Henry Prize!

Crystal Wilkinson, associate professor, is the award-winning author of The Birds of Opulence (winner of the 2016 Ernest J. Gaines Prize for Literary Excellence), Water Street and Blackberries, Blackberries. Nominated for both the Orange Prize and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, she has received recognition from The Kentucky Foundation for Women, The Kentucky Arts Council, The Mary Anderson Center for the Arts, The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown and is a recipient of the Chaffin Award for Appalachian Literature. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and her short stories, poems and essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies including most recently in the Oxford American and Southern Cultures. She will be next year's Kentucky Poety

By University Press of Kentucky and Danielle Donham

LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 30, 2021) — The University Press of Kentucky is debuting its newest series, “Appalachian Futures: Black, Native, and Queer Voices,” edited by Crystal Wilkinson, niversity of Kentucky faculty member and Kentucky's recently named Poet Laureate, alongside Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle and Davis Shoulders.

This book series gives voice to Black, Native, Latinx, Asian, queer and other nonwhite or ignored identities within the Appalachian region.  

“This series reminds us that Appalachian literature is an ever-changing,

By Kentucky Arts Council and Lindsey Piercy

LEXINGTON, Ky.  (March 29, 2021) — Multiple award-winning novelist Crystal Wilkinson has been appointed 2021-22 Kentucky Poet Laureate by Gov. Andy Beshear.

Wilkinson, an English professor in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky, will be inducted as part of the Kentucky Writers’ Day celebration. The virtual ceremony will be held at 10 a.m. on April 23 on the Kentucky Arts Council’s 

By Lindsey Piercy

LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 22, 2021) — Two notable authors will be featured during the Visiting Writers Series (VWS), hosted by the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky. But this year you won’t have to leave your house to see them.

The virtual program will kick off March 25 with award-winning writer, organizer and performer Madeline Ffitch.

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

By Lindsey Piercy

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Jan. 6, 2021) — University Press of Kentucky author Crystal Wilkinson's novel, "The Birds of Opulence," has been selected by Kentucky Humanities for the 2021 Kentucky Reads.

The novel will be at the center of statewide conversations on the dynamics of family and community, the strength of women and stigmas surrounding mental illness. Kentucky Reads will offer 25 scholar-led discussions of “The Birds of Opulence” to community organizations throughout the Commonwealth.

“Mental illness continues to be one of our greatest societal ills and the stigma surrounding it is as concerning as the disease itself,” Wilkinson, an associate professor in the 

By Jessica Bowman-Jones

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Dec. 16, 2020) — Ten University of Kentucky undergraduate student finalists recently competed in the final round of the third 5-Minute Fast Track Research Oral Competition.

The competition included two virtual preliminary rounds, with the top 10 students advancing to the final championship competition. This year’s final round was hosted in the UK's Worsham Cinema and livestreamed to a virtual audience.

Cultivating students’ presentation and research communication skills, competitors were challenged to present their research in five minutes, using only one static slide, in front of a panel of three judges and a virtual audience.

The top three winners are:

By Richard LeComte

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- The College of Arts & Sciences has grabbed an opportunity to bring a scholar of post-colonial literature onto the faculty to expand the range of offerings to University of Kentucky students who want to find new ways of looking at fiction. 

Jap-Nanak K. Makkar is pursuing a two-year American Council of Learned Societies post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of English. At the end of the fellowship, her position will be moved to a tenure-track assistant professorship. 

“It’s almost two years ago now that the ACLS announced this post-doctoral partnership initiative grant designed to diversify departments in the humanities in higher education,” said 

By Titus W. Chalk

Pulitzer-prize winning poet Paul Muldoon and author Kiese Laymon, whose memoir Heavy won the 2019 Andrew Carnegie medal for nonfiction, are featured in this year’s University of Kentucky Visiting Writers Series, which will be held online. Laymon will be reading alongside distinguished writers Cinelle Barnes, Minda Honey and UK alumna Joy Priest.

The English Department’s MFA in Creative Writing in the College of Arts & Sciences sponsors the series. Given the health risks associated with live readings, organizers are taking this mainstay of campus literary life online.

“This shows our determination to continue the high calibre and diverse guests our Visiting Writers Series has become known for, in a virtual format,” said Frank X Walker, the new director of Creative Writing. “We’ll also be adding master classes and workshops to

By Whitney Hale

Watch the trailer for the 2017 Emmy-nominated documentary "BaddDDD Sonia Sanchez" above.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Sept. 7, 2020) — Since the COVID-19 pandemic landed in the United States, organizations have scrambled to maintain their programming while keeping their participants safe and healthy. The Kentucky Women Writers Conference is no different -- it has gone virtual. this year.

Although aspiring writers may not convene in Lexington this fall, they will join online and hear from writers including poet Evie Shockley, author Jami Attenberg, novelist, essayist and filmmaker 

By Whitney Hale

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Aug. 20, 2020) — The Kentucky Women Writers Conference – Virtual Edition runs Sept. 10–13, 2020, and is taking place entirely online.

Julie Wrinn, conference directory, recently wrote an op-ed in the Lexington Herald-Leader about how this event will be different in the context of the pandemic and the protests.The conference features writing workshops, readings and panel discussions. General admission is $25, with options for joining a small-group workshop or meeting with an agent for additional fees.

The conference will continue to include several signature free events, taking place at 7 o'clock, though each will

By Danielle Donham and University Press of Kentucky

LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 2, 2020): The University Press of Kentucky is highlighting several titles written by Black authors throughout its list, including several which are as part of their open access initiative in collaboration with UK Libraries. Some of these authors are faculty members of UK’s College of Arts & Sciences.

“The University Press of Kentucky has a long tradition of showcasing Black voices and stories,” said Ashley Runyon, director of the press. “From our award-winning Civil

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 19, 2020) — While many find working from home during a global pandemic difficult, others find the change of environment and schedule spurs their creativity. The University of Kentucky Gaines Center for the Humanities is exploring the impact of this time on creatives as part of a new video series, “Over Yonder: Conversations with Artists and Scholars on Social Distancing.”

“Over Yonder,” which launched on the Gaines Center’s new YouTube channel, features the center’s director, Melynda Price, interviewing Kentucky artists, musicians and scholars on their quarantine experience. As