By Julie Wrinn

Phillis Rambsy (M.A. 1999) grew up in Jackson, Tennessee, and attended Spelman College in Atlanta surrounded by English majors who planned to attend law school. But for Rambsy, also an English major, going to law school just felt too obvious. “I was sick of people talking about law school. So many English majors go to law school, and I felt that was all I heard people talking about was LSATs and law school rankings,” said Rambsy.

That contrarian spirit made her an especially receptive audience for a recruiter from the University of Kentucky. In Rambsy’s senior year at Spelman, hoping to get extra credit in one of her classes, she agreed to attend a UK representative’s talk about graduate programs. That representative was English professor and now Department Chair Jonathan Allison.

Phillis Rambsy (M.A. 1999) stayed connected to

By Danielle Donham

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 29, 2021) — The 40th annual Kentucky Book Festival returns to Lexington with a mix of virtual and in-person events scheduled from Monday, Nov. 1, to Saturday, Nov. 6. This year’s celebration features 140 authors, culminating in a daylong celebration at Joseph-Beth Booksellers on Saturday, Nov. 6. The weekdays events are a mix of in-person and ticketed events available at http://kybookfestival.org/2021-events. 

These signings, conversations, trivia, meals, presentations and activities serve to celebrate the literary heritage within the Commonwealth. The University of Kentucky is the Main Stage sponsor of the festival on Nov. 6.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 8, 2021) — The Visiting Writers Series, hosted by the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky, kicks off Wednesday, Oct. 1,3 with Academy Award winner Kevin Willmott.

The VWS began in the spring of 2014 with a reading by poet Roger Reeves. Each year, the Department of English continues to bring nationally renowned authors to UK.

"This series is a

By Richard LeComte

LEXINGTON, Ky – Academy Award-winner Kevin Willmott, the director of “The 24th,” will speak at an event featuring the film at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 13. The event will be offered both in person at the Chad Perry III Grand Court Room in the J. David Rosenberg School of Law on the University of Kentucky campus and online. People may register for the online event here.  

The Visiting Writers Series, part of UK’s Department of English in the College of Arts & Sciences, is cosponsoring the event.  

“The 24th” (2020) tells the story of an all-Black regiment of the U.S

By Jesi Jones-Bowman

UK undergraduate researchers Bridget Bolt and Gretchen Ruschman. Students are encouraged to explore undergraduate research opportunities at the Research + Creative Experience Expo.

At the University of Kentucky, undergraduates have access to outstanding research and creative work activities led by world-class faculty and staff that promote self-discovery, experiential learning and lifelong achievement.

Explore exciting undergraduate opportunities at the first annual UK Research + Creative Experience Expo 3-5 p.m. Monday, Sept. 13, around the Gatton Student Center’s Social Staircase.

“The goal of the Research + Creative Experience Expo is to introduce undergraduates to the diversity of research and creative work conducted at UK,” said Chad Risko, faculty

By University Press of Kentucky and Danielle Donham

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Aug. 19, 2021) — University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences associate professor and Kentucky Poet Laureate Crystal Wilkinson’s latest title and first poetry collection, “Perfect Black,” is now available from the University Press of Kentucky.

On Aug. 12, 2021, The New York Times listed “Perfect Black” as one of the four

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: