麻豆直播

MURRAY, Ky. 鈥� The Department of English and Philosophy at 麻豆直播 is pleased to welcome acclaimed author Frank X Walker as the 2025 Clinton and Mary Opal Moore Appalachian Writer-in-Residency. Walker will share his work on Thursday, Sept. 4 at 7:30 p.m. in the Curris Center Ballroom on Murray State鈥檚 campus. The event is free and open to the public. 

A native of Danville, Kentucky, Walker is the first African American writer to have been named Kentucky Poet Laureate. He also coined the term 鈥淎ffrilachia鈥� and co-founded the Affrilachian Poets, subsequently publishing the much-celebrated eponymous collection. Former Kentucky Governor, Steve Beshear, in his announcement of Walker鈥檚 appointment to Poet Laureate in 2013, stated, "Frank X Walker's deep roots in the Kentucky writing community and his contributions to the state's rich literary history led to a new movement in the arts 鈥� one that defined and gave voice to a specific population of Appalachian residents. Our state and region are better for it."

Walker is currently professor of English and African American and Africana Studies at the University of Kentucky in Lexington and has published numerous collections of poetry, including 鈥淭urn Me Loose: The Unghosting of Medgar Evers,鈥� which was awarded the NAACP Image Award for Poetry and the Black Caucus American Library Association Honor Award for Poetry; 鈥淏uffalo Dance: The Journey of York,鈥� winner of the Lillian Smith Book Award; and 鈥淚saac Murphy: I Dedicate This Ride,鈥� which he adapted for stage, earning him the Paul Green Foundation Playwrights Fellowship Award. His most recent work is 鈥淟oad in Nine Times,鈥� a collection of historical poetry that gives voice to Black Civil War soldiers.

In his review of the collection, author Oliver de la Paz writes, 鈥溾�楲oad in Nine Times鈥� builds a powerful monument to those who served and were not recognized. . . . The language strikes the reader鈥檚 senses like a flame to a fuse and Walker shows us just why the stories of these brave and enduring souls are still seared into the landscape. This is seismic and significant work.鈥�

Walker鈥檚 visit to Murray State is made possible by the Clinton and Mary Opal Moore Appalachian Writer鈥檚 Residency,  established with gifts from Shirley Moore Menendez, the late John C. Moore, Tom Moore, Nancy Moore Waldrop and Jayne Moore Waldrop in honor of their late parents and their family鈥檚 eastern Kentucky roots. Clinton Elster Moore (1916-2008) and Mary Opal Moore (1922-2015) were born in eastern Kentucky 鈥� Pike and Letcher counties, respectively 鈥� but left the mountains in the early 1950s when they moved to far western Kentucky. They settled in Paducah where they remained for the rest of their lives, but they always considered Appalachia their home. 

The Moore Residency was created to strengthen literary connections between Appalachia and western Kentucky while enhancing the creative and professional growth of students in the creative writing program at Murray State.  It commemorates the Moores鈥� east-to-west journey in hopes of fostering creativity and understanding between two distinct regions in Kentucky connected by the Cumberland River.  

For more information about the event, contact Dr. Carrie Jerrell at cjerrell1@murraystate.edu.