Kentucky Authors with Tom Eblen
Tom Eblen, literary liaison for the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning
About the series
In partnership with the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning and UnderMain, we offer a series of conversations about their latest works with Kentucky's deep and varied bench of authors and poets. Series host Tom Eblen is a journalist, writer and photographer and serves as literary liaison at the Carnegie Center for Literacy & Learning. Tom was metro/state columnist for the Lexington Herald-Leader from 2008 to 2019 and the newspaper’s managing editor from 1998-2008. He returned to his hometown in 1998 after 14 years with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and five years with The Associated Press. He has won many awards, including the 2013 media award in the Kentucky Governor’s Awards in the Arts. He was inducted into the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame in 2016. He was a contributing author for the book Bluegrass Renaissance: The History and Culture of Central Kentucky, 1792-1852 (University Press of Kentucky 2012).
Author Interviews
July 2, 2020: Tom discusses The Year of Peril: America in 1942 with author and UK historian Tracy Campbell - LISTEN
August 13, 2020 - Tom discusses the value and importance of solitude with Fenton Johnson, author of At the Center of All Beauty: Solitude and the Creative Life - LISTEN
September 10, 2020: Tom discusses her new book, Dear Ann, with celebrated Kentucky author Bobbie Ann Mason - LISTEN
October 8, 2020 - Kentucky poet Lynnell Edwards joins Tom to talk about her new collection of poems published under the title, This Great Green Valley - LISTEN
October 29, 2020 - Josh Douglas joins Tom to discuss the UK law professor's new book, Vote for Us: How to Take Back Our Elections and Change the Future of Voting - LISTEN
November 12, 2020 - Tom talks with Beverly Bell about her fact-based novel, The Murder of Marion Miley. - LISTEN
December 3, 2020 - Ashley Runyon, Director of the University Press of Kentucky discusses the challenges of publishing in an ever-shifting media landscape. - LISTEN
December 10, 2020 - Cassie Chamber Armstrong - The film adaptation of Hillbilly Elegy has renewed spirited conversations about the JD Vance memoir. Tom Eblen discusses it with Cassie Chambers Armstrong, author of an Atlantic essay about the film, as well as a new book, Hill Women: Finding Family and a Way Forward in the Appalachian Mountains. - LISTEN
January 26-27, 2021 - Nikky Finney - The celebrated Kentucky author discusses her induction into the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame - LISTEN
January 28, 2021 - Frank X Walker - On synthesizing the major events of 2020 as works of poetry - LISTEN
February 18, 2021 - Leesa Cross-Smith discusses her latest novel, This Close to Okay - LISTEN
April 8, 2021 - More than a cookbook: Ouita Michel's literary debut, Just a Few Miles South - LISTEN
April 29, 2021 - With Kentucky's outgoing and incoming Poet Laureates Jeff Worley and Crystal Wilkinson - LISTEN
September 2, 2021 - Crystal Wilkinson discusses her book "Perfect Black" - LISTEN
September 30, 2021 - Pulitzer Prize finalist Margaret Verble of Lexington on her latest, When Two Feathers Fell From the Sky - LISTEN
October 14, 2021 - Jayne Moore Waldrop on her debut novel, Drowned Towns - LISTEN
November 11, 2021 - Ada Limon on hosting the public media poetry podcast that calls on us to do as the title suggests, The Slowdown - LISTEN
