1780 – The Official Blog of Transylvania University

1780 | The Official Blog of Transylvania University

Inaugural book festival event brings national author to Central Kentucky

Kentucky Book Festival
Kentucky Book Festival
Author Beck Dorey-Stein and KET’s Renee Shaw discuss “From the Corner of the Oval” with attendees at the first Cocktails and Conversation event hosted by Transylvania as part of the Kentucky Book Festival. 

Growing the Kentucky Book Fair into a week-long literary festival was the goal of the Kentucky Humanities Council in 2018. On Thursday, Nov. 15, Transylvania hosted a new festival event, Cocktails and Conversation, which welcomed a national-level author to Lexington.

President Seamus Carey and Lindsey Wilson College President William Luckey attended the Kentucky Book Festival event. 

Beck Dorey-Stein is the author of “From the Corner of the Oval,” a memoir looking back at her time as a White House stenographer. At the event, KET’s Renee Shaw led a conversation with Dorey-Stein about her tenure in the White House and life in Washington, D.C. 

The festival continues through the weekend with the 37th annual Kentucky Book Fair, which gives readers the opportunity to meet their favorite authors face to face.  Three authors with Transy ties will be participating.

Jeremy Paden, a Spanish professor and poet, will be on site with two collections, including his newest book of poetry “Prison Recipes.”

Richard Taylor, who is Transy’s Kenan Visiting Writer and a former Kentucky poet laureate, is participating. Taylor’s new book, “Elkhorn: Evolution of a Kentucky Landscape,” received this year’s Thomas D. Clark Medallion.

Bianca Spriggs ’03, a writer, multidisciplinary artist and assistant professor of English at Ohio University, is also attending. Spriggs and Paden co-edited “Black Bone: 25 Years of Affrilachian Poets,” which was reprinted by the University Press of Kentucky earlier this year.

For a full schedule of events, list of authors and additional information, visit the Kentucky Book Festival website.