Tagged: Books

Nothing secures a literary legacy like an over-sized personality to match the work. On some level, we want our artists to behave badly, feuding with critics and wearing, perhaps, less clothing than appropriate in public. We want to believe that being a talented, successful writer isn’t just another job, like being a plumber or an accountant—it's a lifestyle, or maybe even a curse. 

We're launching a new show this summer: Unbound is a literary journal for the ears, where we hope you'll discover your next favorite author. In each half-hour episode, two authors will each read a short story on a theme. Our authors are memorable voices writing excellent, engaging, thrilling and heartbreaking stories and novels -- exciting writers creating a buzz on the literary scene. 

Jarhead Earl is the best fighter in southeastern Kentucky. He’s also broke with two babies to feed. His ticket out of poverty is winning an annual high-stakes underground bare-knuckle fight tournament held in the wilds of Southern Indiana. But he’s not the only one headed for the ring in Frank Bill's first novel, "Donnybrook," which continues the exploration he began in his acclaimed story debut, "Crimes in Southern Indiana," of a violent Midwestern Gothic people and landscape.

Danville native Frank X Walker made history last week when Governor Steve Beshear appointed him the next Kentucky poet laureate. Walker is the state’s first African American poet laureate, and at 51, he’s also the youngest.