Kentucky Writers-on-the-Road (KYOTR)

With the launch of his book, Wesley Houp, and the James Baker Hall Foundation will begin the James Baker Hall ‘Kentucky Writers-on-the Road’ speaker series (KYOTR) an idea developed with counsel from Bill Goodman (Executive Director of the Kentucky Humanities Council) and Frank X Walker (Director, Creative Writing, University of Kentucky) to celebrate all aspects of our rich literary heritage in the Commonwealth everywhere in the Commonwealth there are writers.

The KYOTR speaking series executes over the course of a year, until the next Book Award winner is announced. During these months we will invite Wesley Houp to read his poetry in six locations in our Commonwealth where literary creatives accumulate in substantial numbers:

  1. Central Kentucky Fayette County/Lexington
  2. Eastern Kentucky Knott County/Hindman Settlement School (HSS)
  3. Kentucky/Erlanger
  4. Central Kentucky
  5. Jefferson County/Louisville
  6. Western Kentucky/Bowling Green, Owensboro, Paducah.

In each location we have or will develop a partner relationship to support our program plans. A strong local bookstore is the likely candidate or the public library. Our KYOTR protocol brings in a well-known local author or other crowd-pleasing writer and a younger writer, student or mentee, along with our JBH winner.

We suggest a day of workshops in advance of the reading, so the event can have more substance and lasting impact, and books can be sold and bought.

The Future's Bright…

As we continue into future years of the James Baker Hall Book Award and ‘Kentucky Writers-on-the Road’ a number of variations on both tracks present themselves.

  1. A series of localized book awards designed to give all writers a chance to write and incentivize others to begin writing if they are inclined.
  2. A multi-county model to facilitate artist guild formation at the county level and productive cross-county coordinated work in production of events
  3. KYOTR series linked with the Young Writers Program (YWP) at Hindman Settlement School (HSS). YWP is a county-by-county outreach program in Appalachia we are pursuing in partnership with HSS. Visiting high schools in search of student writers who may be interested in attending the Ironwood Writers Studio at HSS.
  4. Engage other programs targeting young writers.

We now have growing numbers of high school writers at the Ironwood Writers Studio retreat in June and a cohesive cohort has formed. This cohort, with about 15 members, has been together for two years now and is engaged, vibrant and incentivized. Most importantly, they are a team and value that bond greatly. The essential value of community is evident all around them. HSS owns the Appalachian Writers Conference, this is one goal for the young Ironwood mentees and those who begin to focus on what being a writer takes, a very big goal.

At the same time the James Baker Hall Book Award stands as another goal in the eyes of the coming generations of Kentucky writers. An award that grows to engender national, potentially international, recognition, “if… the work is “good enough to warrant a place there.”