The Kentucky Arts Council is pleased to present Five Kentucky Poets Laureate: An Anthology, a collection of poetry and prose by a distinguished group of Kentucky writers; the commonwealth's poets laureate. Five Kentucky Poets Laureate: An Anthology, includes the writings of Richard Taylor (Kentucky Poet Laureate 1999-2000), James Baker Hall (2001-2002), Joe Survant (2003-2004), Sena Jeter Naslund (2005-2006), and Jane Gentry (2007-2008). The anthology has been edited by Jane Gentry and Frederick Smock with a cover illustration by photographer Geoff Carr.

In his preface, Frederick Smock says, “Ever since Daniel Boone crossed through the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky, and wrote the first poem composed west of the Appalachians, on a tree – D. Boone kilt a bar, 1803 – Kentuckians have been living the examined life. The supreme achievement of Kentucky letters might well be read in the work of its poets laureate. The current volume publishes selections from the five living poets laureate, and the works are as varied as you might expect from a state that bridges east and west, north and south . . . Such is the universal and variable nature of life and art.”

TEACHER RESOURCES

The Kentucky Arts Council is pleased to present each Kentucky high- and middle-school with a free classroom set of Five Kentucky Poets Laureate: An Anthology. CLICK HERE to request your classroom set.

Select a poet name above, to access the online study guide developed by Dr. Sue Churchill, writing resource teacher for Woodford County High School.

The publication of Five Kentucky Poets Laureate: An Anthology is a project of the Kentucky Arts Council (an agency in the Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet) and is made possible through funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.