36th Annual Kentucky Book Fair Set for Lexington This Weekend

Now in its 36th year, the Kentucky Book Fair presented by Kentucky Humanities will be held from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm Saturday, November 18, for the first time ever at the Alltech Arena at the Kentucky Horse Park, 4089 Iron Works Parkway, Lexington, KY.

The fair will feature more than 180 authors and editors showcasing their most recent books, including several writers from University Press of Kentucky (UPK). It is free and open to the public. Parking is free as well.

The Kentucky Book Fair attracts thousands of avid readers and patrons from across the country. With selections ranging from children's books and regional cookbooks to wartime histories and poetry collections, the fair has a book for everyone with a passion for reading. Throughout the day, readers can find their favorite authors presenting in panels and discussing their life experiences and work in literature. Founded in 1981, the Kentucky Book Fair is the state's leading literary event. The fair is dedicated to honoring the profession of writing and to providing a format for authors to meet their reading public.

University Press of Kentucky authors participating in the Kentucky Book Fair this year include:

· Bill Best & Dobree Adams, coauthors of Kentucky Heirloom Seeds: Growing, Eating, Saving

· James Archambeault, author Kentucky Horse Country: Images of the Bluegrass and James Archambeault's Historic Kentucky

· Jack R. Baker, coauthor of Wendell Berry and Higher Education: Cultivating Virtues of Place

· Carol Boggess, author of James Still, A Life

· James P. Cousins, author of Horace Holley: Transylvania University and the Making of Liberal Education in the Early American Republic

· William E. Ellis, author of Irvin S. Cobb: The Rise and Fall of an American Humorist

· bell hooks, author of Appalachian Elegy: Poetry and Place

· Fenton Johnson, author of The Man Who Loved Birds, among others

· Julia Johnson, editor of The New and Collected Poems of Jane Gentry

· Robert G. Lawson, author of Who Killed Betty Gail Brown? Murder, Mistrial, and Mystery

· George Ella Lyon, author of Many-Storied House: Poems, among others

· James W. Miller, author of Integrated: The Lincoln Institute, Basketball, and a Vanished Tradition

· William Lynwood Montell, author of Tales of Kentucky Ghosts, among others

· Colleen O'Connor Olson, author of Mammoth Cave Curiosities: A Guide to Rockphobia, Dating, Saber-toothed Cats, and Other Subterranean Marvels

· Carol Peachee, author of The Birth of Bourbon: A Photographic Tour of Early Distilleries

· Rachel Danielle Peterson, author of A Girl's A Gun: Poems

· Garin Pirnia, author of The Beer Cheese Book

· Susan Reigler, author of Kentucky Bourbon Country, among others

· Rion Amilcar Scott, author of The PEN/Robert W. Bingham Award-winning Insurrections: Stories

· Richard Taylor, author of Sue Mundy: A Novel of the Civil War

· Mary Ann Taylor-Hall, author of At The Breakers: A Novel and Come and Go, Molly Snow: A Novel

· Bob Thompson, author of Hitchhiker: Stories from the Kentucky Homefront

· Frank X Walker, author of and Buffalo Dance: The Journal of York and When Winter Come: The Ascension of York

· Crystal Wilkinson, author of The Birds of Opulence, among others

· Aimee Zaring, author of Flavors from Home: Refugees in Kentucky Share Their Stories and Comfort Foods

In addition to authors who will be available on the main arena floor to talk about their books, the Kentucky Book Fair will be hosting a series of panel discussions and presentations for authors and readers alike on the main stage and in the breakout rooms. Several panels include UPK authors eager to share their work, as well as open discussions on a variety of engaging topics, including:

10:00 am-Breakout Room #2, "On Poetry: A Discussion" Rebecca Gayle Howell, photographer for This is Home Now, and current Kentucky Poet Laureate and editor of The American Voice Anthology of Poetry, Frederick Smock, will discuss the value of reading and teaching oneself to appreciate poetry.

1:00 pm-The Main Stage, UPK authors "bell hooks in Conversation with Crystal Wilkinson" will discuss their writing careers and experiences as Black women writers in Kentucky. Wilkinson is the author of The Birds of Opulence, Blackberries, Blackberries, and Water Street, and hooks is the author of Appalachian Elegy.

3:00 pm-Breakout Room #2, "Writing Against the Wind: Sex, Gender and Sexuality" with Kim Edwards and UPK author Fenton Johnson will talk about how issues of sex, gender, and sexuality have affected Kentucky writers and literature, and how it continues to change. Fenton Johnson is the author of The Man Who Loved Birds. The panel will be moderated by Jason Howard, author of A Few Honest Words: The Kentucky Roots of Popular Music and co-author of Something's Rising: Appalachians Fighting Mountaintop Removal.

3:00 pm-Breakout Room #1, "Kentucky Gold: Bourbon 101" Carla Harris Carlton, Fred Minnick, and UPK author Susan Reigler will explain the basics of bourbon, from taste to popularity, the best distilleries across Kentucky, food and spirits associated with bourbon, and more. Susan Reigler is the author of The Kentucky Bourbon Cocktail Book, More Kentucky Bourbon Cocktails, and Kentucky Bourbon County.

10:00 am-Breakout Room #1, the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame will present "The Art of Separating Truth from Myth in Biography," which coincides with the release of new biographies of two Hall of Fame inductees-James Still by Carol Boggess and Irvin S. Cobb by William E. Ellis. Both authors will be in attendance at the KBF.

The Kentucky Book Fair kicks off on Friday, November 17 with the seventh annual KBF Kids Day. Nearly 1,000 young students in grades 3 through 12 from across the state will meet fifty authors and participate in several author presentations. For the second year, about 300 high school students will participate in a "Master Class" presented by Erin Merryn, a survivor of child sexual abuse who advocated for a law to protect children who have been sexually abused.

A full listing of authors participating in the Kentucky Book Fair and on-site events can be found on the KBF website.

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