Frank X Walker

Frank X Walker, 2013-2014 Kentucky Poet Laureate, is a professor in the department of English and the African American and Africana Studies program at the University of Kentucky as well as the founding editor of PLUCK!: The Journal of Affrilachian Arts & Culture. A Cave Canem Fellow and co-founder of the Affrilachian Poets, he is the author of eight collections of poetry including the recent The Affrilachian Sonnets and Turn Me Loose: The Unghosting of Medgar Evers. Voted one of the most creative professors in the south, he is the originator of the word, Affrilachia, and is dedicated to deconstructing and forcing a new definition of what it means to be Appalachian. The Lannan Poetry Fellowship Award recipient has degrees from the University of Kentucky and Spalding University as well as four honorary doctorates from the University of KY, Spalding University, Transylvania University and Centre College.