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You will enjoy Kentucky Writers'
Day at three area locations; we look forward to your being part of it.
Bring you original writings and let us hear what you have
created.
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The following hotel is offering discount
rates for any out-of-town visitors attending
Penn's Store Kentucky
Writers' Day
THANK YOU, HAMPTON INN!
Hampton Inn --
Danville
100 Montgomery Way
Danville, KY 40422
859-236-6200
fax 859-936-0271
www.hamptoninn.com/hi/danville-ky
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NOTICE:
Because of a soggy
floodplain (no parking)
the Sunday event will be moved to
FORKLAND COMMUNITY CENTER 3
miles east of Penn's Store on Highway 37
 Dr. H.R. Stoneback
Dr. H.
R. Stoneback and the
Elizabeth Madox Roberts Society from New York will be joining us
again this year.
H. R. Stoneback is an
internationally renowned poet and literary
critic who has published 20 books and hundreds of essays. He received
his Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University in Nashville where he also worked
in the country music business. He has also been a performer/singer/songwriter for 50 years and as half of the well-known duo, "Stoney &
Sparrow," he has given concerts throughout Asia, Europe, and North
America and released 2 CDs featuring his own songs. The "Stoney &
Sparrow Songbook" will be published in late 2010. He is also the
subject of Jerry Jeff Walker's legendary hit ballad, "Stoney," which evokes the
troubadour/singer's life on the road in the early 60s, when Jerry Jeff
and Stoney were on the road together. His recent volumes of poems
include Amazing-Grace-Wheelchair-Jumpshot-Jesus-Love-Poems (2009),
Hurricane Hymn & Other Poems (2009), and his anthology of poems Des
Imagistes (2010), which had its World Premiere celebration at
Brunnenburg Castle in Italy last June, and its American Premiere during
Kentucky Writers Day at Penn's Store in April 2010.
KY Writer's Day Show - performances by
Dawn Lane Osborn, and other
Kentucky Writers' Day Songwriters. Dawn is a poet, song writer, and
musician and performs professionally.
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Guest
Appearance
 Elizabeth Orndorff,
from Danville, Kentucky, worked in
advertising and public relations before turning to fiction and
playwriting. Her play Death by Darkness won the
International Mystery Writers Festival in 2007 and the Southern
Playwrights Competition in 2008. In 2009, her play Aidan’s Gift
won the Kentucky Theatre Association’s playwriting award. In July
2010 her comedy The Dillinger Dilemma ran at Pioneer
Playhouse in Danville. Her comedy/drama High Strangeness
opened the season for West T. Hill Community Theatre in September.
She recently won a Wurlitzer Foundation Fellowship to live and
write plays in Taos, New Mexico.
The original cast of High Strangeness by Elizabeth Orndorff
will present two scenes from the comedy inspired by local legend.
If you missed it last fall when it was a sell-out hit at West T.
Hill, you'll get to see two of the funniest scenes about three
women who claimed to have been abducted by a flying saucer full of
space aliens.
Starring (Left to right, top to
bottom: Arnetta Myers, Bobbie Curd, Crystal Nichols, Allen Martin.)
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Guest
Appearance
 "Take the inventiveness of Boy Dylan, the
melodic voice of John Denver; add the showmanship of Garrison
Keilor and that's Michael Johnathon." -- Bob Spear,
Publisher of HEARTLAND REVIEW
Michael Johnathon is a folksinger, songwriter, concert
performer, author ...
and now playwright ... who has a worldwide
radio audience exceeding a
million listeners each week.
The Lexington-based songwriter has been called a 'Woody Guthrie in
a Cyber
World' because of the huge growth of his weekly public
radio and PBS show the WOODSONGS OLD-TIME RADIO HOUR. (www.woodsongs.com)
In the 1980's Michael bought a guitar and a banjo and settled into
the isolated
mountain hamlet of Mousie, Kentucky to learn folk
music. For the next three years, he traveled up and down the
hollers of the Appalachian mountains knocking on doors and learning
the music of the mountain people. Michael experienced hundreds of
front porch hootenannie
throughout Appalachia where folks would pull out their banjos and
fiddles, sit on their front porches with him and play the old songs
that their grandparents taught them.
His new album is being released April 2010, called Ravenwood
and features support from Sam Bush, John McEuen,
dobro master Rob Ickes, bluesman Guy Davis and JP
Pennington. The single, "Cars," has been shipped to over 1500
radio stations in the USA. (you can hear songs from the album
online:
www.ravenwoodcd.com)
Michael also wrote the hugely popular environmental play
"Walden: The Ballad of Thoreau" about the final two days Henry
David Thoreau spent in his cabin before leaving Walden Pond. Over
7,400 colleges and schools and community
theaters has performed the
play in 41 countries. This month, KET and many other PBS
affiliates nationwide will broadcast Walden in celebration of
Earth Day (www.waldenplay.com)
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EMCEES |
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Andy Colley is
a 16 year veteran of radio broadcasting in stations across
Kentucky. He currently
serves as Program Director and Operations Manager for 1590
WLBN and 100.9 MIKE FM in
Lebanon/Springfield, along with 102.7 WYSB
in Bardstown. Andy hosts the
morning show on 100.9 MIKE FM and afternoons on sister station K
Country 105.7, WGRK in
Greensburg/Campbellsville.
Andy likes to be active in his community as well, currently serving
as president of the Lebanon-Marion County Rotary Club.
He is also the father of two daughters and a grandfather,
too.
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Hershel McKinley is
probably best known for his many
years on
Danville radio stations WKLO, WHIR, and WMGE-FM, as News
Director, public affairs broadcaster and morning air personality.
In what Hershel
describes as "long ago and far away" he wrote, produced, directed
and appeared in many films for the State of Kentucky in The
Department of Public Information. Hershel has worked in the
Lexington and northern Ohio radio and television markets and is a
graduate of Kent State University.
Born in Southern Kentucky,
Hershel called Danville home for many years, but now lives on a
farm in northern Mercer County with his wife Shirley, who is a
Labor/Delivery RN at Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center in
Danville. Hershel and Shirley have two married children, Jason and
Mary Beth McKinley, Rachel and Preston Correll and two
grandchildren, Gus and Annie Correll.
Calling himself a lifelong
fledgling novice in creative writing Hershel is a member of
Speaking Out and Nomadic Ink writing groups in Mercer County.
Hershel currently does freelance
voice work and script writing. He has been heard throughout the
South in radio and television commercials, industrial video
voiceovers, audio book readings, and political radio
advertisements. For the last few years he has also been the sound
engineer for the Forkland Festival Bean Supper Play.
He and Shirley, and their
children, have had the opportunity to travel or work in many parts
of the world including East Africa, Central America, England, the
Caribbean, and India.
Photography is a long time hobby
of Hershel's and one of his photos was recently used in an
advertisement on the back cover of a national equine magazine. |
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List of Other Writers and Performers |
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 A native of the Lakes
Region of southwestern Maine, in his young adult years,
Terry Swett traveled
extensively around the United States, painting signs and sometimes
singing for his supper. Those days inspired his first real
song writing. He refers to his early originals as a
"Travelogue of Folkish Ditties." Thirty years later Terry
still makes signs for a living and still writes. His songs
may be about bartenders, pool shootin', home towns, love or God.
Terry and his wife Sandy now reside in North Bridgton, Maine.
Classic Harmonies
is a family group performing Christian, folk and country music. Our
Christian music is comprised of beautiful songs ranging from gospel
to old hymns to contemporary. Our folk and country numbers include
hits from the 1960's through the 1980's. We strive to remind our
listeners of the classic sounds from that era that we want to keep
alive. |
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 Paula Sparrow will once again be bringing her "Creature
Comforts" to Kentucky Writers Day. She recently published her first
book, Kentucky Living's Creature Comforts, a compilation of her
columns on animal rescue. The first book of its kind, Creature
Comforts covers the state of Kentucky, visiting animal rescues,
shelters, and sanctuaries, reporting on the people of Kentucky who
have devoted their lives to saving animals: dogs, cats, wildlife,
primates, and even elephants. The book was nominated for the 2010
Media Advocacy Award from Pet Groups United. This year, Paula will
be discussing the intended-as well as unintended-results of "the
power of the written word." Paula, as usual, will be
bringing stories she's written on animal rescue.
When she published an essay about adopting a pet instead of
buying one, she was surprised at the reaction her words got.
Her topic this year will be "The Intended-and
Unintended-Effects of a Writer's Words. |
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 Having
spent his early years in the USMC,
C.A. SHELLEY became a member of the Lexington Fire
Department, retiring after 28 years of service.
In 2010 he
found his voice in the arts by writing and co-producing the movie
Gone but Not Forgotten, the
Story of the Smoke Eaters, a full-length documentary
chronicling the memories and experiences of his "Firefighter
Brothers". During the filming Shelley became so inspired
that he began to write.
First:
A Collection of Poems,
Thoughts & Short Stories about his beloved Fire Department.
Second: Wake Up, America;
it’s Your Conscience Calling, thirty poems honoring the
struggles that our military and their families are enduring every
moment. Third: His current book
A Spiritual Awakening,
forty-nine poems of Inspiration & Hope.
He calls
himself a "Blue-Collar Poet", with "My God guiding this ship,
putting His words in my heart, which I put to paper. I am on a
mission and I have a lot to say, so look for me; I'm coming to you
down God's highway."
C.A. Shelley
and his wife Rita reside at Lake Herrington, Mercer County,
Kentucky.
Wilma Brown of Danville is a retired English
teacher and librarian. She is also an artists whose portraits
hang in over 300 homes in central Kentucky. In community
involvement, she has been a founding member of several non-profit
arts organizations as well as the owner of a retail store
representing the work of over 100 Kentucky artists. For the
past six years she has been a member of the Board of Directors of
the Kentucky Arts Council.
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 Joe Crafa was born and
raised in Brooklyn, New York. He became interested in music of
the thirties and forties while listening to his parents' record
collection and became influenced by the styles of Dick
Haymes, Bing Crosby, and several
other artists of that era. Joe was the lead singer for several
"oldies" groups while living in New York. He played tenor
saxophone and performed at resorts in the Catskill Mountains of
New York state. After marrying he
moved to New Jersy and discontinued
any public performances. He moved to Casey County, Kentucky in
2005 and in 2009 was "drafted" by his friends to help start an
open mic at Uncle Bob's in Stanford,
Kentucky.It was there that he first
heard Leah Clark perform. The two tried an unrehearsed song
together at the open mic, which was
so well received that they decided to form a duet.
Leah Bugg Clark, born and
raised in Stanford, Kentucky, developed a love for music at an
early age, learning to play the guitar and sing at the age of
thirteen. She grew up playing music and singing in church, using
praise and worship music as the foundation of her musical
ability. She later branched out and began singing at coffee shops
and open mics, and started writing
her own music. Leah's writing influences
include Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave, and Melissa Etheridge.
She is frequently compared to sixties and seventies folk music
icons like Joan Biaz and Judy
Collins. Leah's melodic song writing and stunning vocals can be
described as dream-like and haunting.
Although they came from such different musical and geographical
backgrounds, the similarity in style and vocal quality was
immediately evident. They have been described as having a "magic
blend" that captures their audiences.
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Mamakitty
Southwood came together out of the shared love for a good
song, driven by the lyrics and vocal interwoven harmonies of
songwriters Kim Weber, Mark DeWitt, and Tony Cooper. You can view
live video at this website address:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkyAPJ3VlYw or through our
myspace:
www.myspace.com/mamakittysouthwood You can also find us on Sonicbids,
Reverbnation, Facebook, Digstation and CD Baby.
The band is a soulful breed of
Rock and Americana, flavored by a variety of influences- especially
folk and blues. Kim Weber has been writing since before sand Weber joined forces in August, 2008. Tony
Cooper joined the band in the fall of 2010. It was an immediate
connection, melding his style with the existing sound. The band’s
flexibility lies in the ability to play as a full 5 piece or
as an acoustic duo or trio. They have performed for groups as he can
remember and performing since she was 29 years old, and songwriters
Mark DeWitt and Tony Cooper have been making their magic since
before they could walk. Mamakitty Southwood has been performing as
a band since DeWitt arge
as Fender's Den Radio's audience and the Heartland Festival's
attendees to groups as intimate as a few wanderers on Bardstown Road.
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The
Elizabeth Madox Roberts
Society will be part of
the events,
in conjunction with their conference at St. Catherine College in
Springfield. |
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 Richard Moore - Artisan, Craftsman, Musician / Songwriter presently
resides in Ashville, North Carolina. His grandfather gets the
credit for teaching him to play guitar and Johnny Cash for the
inspiration to start writing songs at the age of fifteen. Being
reared in a military family, he gathered influences from all over
the country; mainly the southeast. Moore was introduced to Penn's
Store when he accompanied buddy and Hall of Fame inductee Billy Edd
Wheeler at the 2007 "GREAT OUTHOUSE BLOWOUT".
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Glenn D. Metzger has been
performing music for most of his 58 years, beginning with church
choirs from age six. After taking up violin at ten and guitar
at twelve, he played folk and rock and roll through his teen years
and while majoring in music in college. A long hiatus to
attend to family duties was followed by a return to performing,
both solo and with small groups and a contemporary church music
band. Now, in the words of one of his songs, he's "playing
bars, playing jails, anywhere the ship sails."
Dixie Bertram
has been teaching language arts for 21 years in Lincoln County,
Kentucky. She always had a great personal love for writing, and
since becoming a teacher, has an even greater love for teaching
others to write. Dixie began writing stories at a very young age. A
high school poetry class opened the door to another genre. Bertram
has written plays for church, which she also directed and produced,
and has also written sermon skits and personal narratives.
Dixie Bertram presently teaches at Lincoln County Middle
School; lives in Stanford, Kentucky where she has resided most of
her life, has two daughters and two granddaughters. |
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Gregg
Neikirk
and Adam Neikirk
are songwriters from Danville who currently live in Westfield,
Massachusetts. Gregg Neikirk is
professor of English at Westfield State University, where he
teaches literature and writing, including a popular Songwriting
course. Adam
Neikirk will soon enter graduate
school in an MFA program where he will use his jazz guitar
skills to help write poetry, among other things. Adam, who has
a B.A. in Jazz Studies, has also been a teacher in the
Songwriting classes at WSU.
 Chris
Hamilton
is the former sports editor, news editor and editor
of The Lebanon Enterprise.
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He goes by Joseph, although his mom calls him Joey and some folks
call him Joe. His full name, though, is
Joseph Ross Camuglia.
He's of Italian decent and grew up in a small town (of about 5
thousand people) 60 miles north of New York City. The town is
called Marlboro. And although they don't make cigarettes there,
they do smoke a lot of them! Marlboro is situated on the Hudson
River, not too far from Poughkeepsie or West Point. It's a
beautiful area of rolling hills and lots of trees, many of which
are fruit trees. The area rates third in apple production in the
New York State, and this songwriter was fortunate enough to live
amidst acres and acres of apple orchards. For twenty years he's
been writing and singing songs, often in places that you wouldn't
expect, such as pizza shops and barber shops... and grocery stores
and laundromats. He also sings and plays at more conventional
places like churches, coffeehouses, schools and college campuses.
Joseph s certainly one of America's best "unknown" songwriters. but
it's probably just a short period of time before some big shot
record producer offers him a contract and receives the fame and
fortune that he's been so diligently avoiding all these years! In
the meantime, singing for the few is what he loves to do. Many
albums are in the works. Joseph has written over a thousand songs,
and little by little he hopes to record at least a few hundred of
them! |
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 Susan
H. Simpson is a Kentucky educator with a Masters and a
Rank I in English. She
has taught for over 35 years in the public and private school
systems teaching English and Journalism.
As well, Susan was the Washington County cheerleader sponsor
and the newspaper advisor for 13 years.
She currently serves on the Kentucky School Media
Association State Board and works as a librarian.
At
the age of 23, Susan served in the Peace Corps. For two years she
worked in Colombia, South America teaching English and the use of
educational television and learning Spanish.
Susan has
traveled extensively, discovering over nineteen countries.
Inspired by her travels, she now enjoys Painting,
Photography, and writing poetry.
Susan is a member of the Poet's Supper, a central Kentucky
collective of writers, which has published some of her work.
Susan is married to Coach Whitey Simpson who is also a Kentucky
educator. Chad, her oldest
son, is a Disability Advocate for Binder & Binder.
Chad and his wife Dr. Christina Conroy, who is an Associate
Professor of Philosophy at Morehead State University, blessed Susan
with a grandson, Carter who is now two.
Her youngest son Wade is a Photographer and is the Photo
Editor for an arts journal, Cousin Corinne's Reminder.
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 Darlene
Franklin-Campbell grew up in the hill country of Southern
Kentucky. She holds a M.A. in Education.
Teacher, artist,
minister and internationally known poet, she donates proceeds from
her poetry to combat Mountain Top Removal. Her work has appeared in
such notables as Story South, Instructor Magazine, Inlightenment
and Coal County: Rising up Against Mountain Top Removal, the
accompanying anthology to the 2009 Ashley Judd film.
Darlene is an advocate
for literacy and the arts, for ecological responsibility, and for
all things “anti-cancer”, donating the royalties from her novel, I
Listened, Momma, to Relay for Life. I Listened, Momma marks her
debut as a southern novelist and is raising both awareness and
funds in the fight against cancer.
http://www.darlenefranklincampbell.com/chippie
http://www.nochipa.wordpress.com |
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 Doris
Purdom was born in the Forkland Community on Black Lick Creek
in 1931 and graduated from Forkland School in 1949. She
serves as Vice-President of the Forkland Community Center , has
been chairman of "Forkland's Old-Fashioned Bean Supper" for 38
years and has performed in most of the 38 dramas. Doris has
been married to her husband Carroll for 59 years, has one daughter
Dianna Barker and one granddaughter Jamie M. Hamblin. Doris,
along with Shirley Sheperson and Darrell Ellis, researched all
cemeteries in the Forkland community and compiled a cemetery book
called The Forgotten Past in 1976. Doris also served
on the Forkland Committee that put together the Forkland History of
families called Forkland Heritage: Its People Past and Present,
1793-1996, Vol. 1 & 2. |
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Maurice Manning's third book of poetry,
Bucolics, has just been released in paperback.
His first book, Lawrence Booth's Book of Visions, was
selected for the 2000 Yale Series of Younger Poets. Manning is
from Kentucky, where he lives part of the year. He teaches at
Indiana University and in the MFA Program for Writers at Warren
Wilson College.
It was announced Monday, April 18 in the
New York Times that
MAURICE MANNING ( who read Saturday, April 16, 2011 at
the WEST T HILL THEATRE venue, Danville, KY for the 2011 KWD
CELEB ) was one of the Finalists for the 2011
PULITZER PRIZE in Poetry. It is announced
annually the winner along with the 2 finalists for the year.
We congratulate Maurice and thank him for so graciously
sharing his talents and time with everyone at the
2011 KENTUCKY WRITERS DAY CELEBRATION.
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Mark H Metcalf is an attorney in Lancaster,
Kentucky. Mark has practiced law for 25 years, as a private
practitioner, state and federal prosecutor, and as a judge on the
United States Immigration Court in Miami, Florida. He has
represented Kentucky twice before the U.S. Supreme Court as Special
Assistant Attorney General of Kentucky. He is presently Command
Judge-Advocate for the 149th Brigade in Louisville, Ky and
deploys for duty in Iraq on June 1, 2011. Metcalf
will be discussing his book, "THE BROKEN COURTS".
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 Regina
Noel-Wethington was reared in Dry Creek, Kentucky. She
graduated from Casey County High School at the top of her class in
Choir and Music Theory. Her love for singing and writing
began at an early age. She began writing songs at age 14.
While in high school she pursued her love of music by singing in a
gospel group and also in church. In a later move to Indiana,
Wethington continued her musical interests in writing and by
singing with a soft rock band for 2 years. Upon return to
Kentucky she sang with Jerry Chapman and the Young Country Band.
Her published poems include "Peace of Mind" and "Life".
Regina is married to Ernest R. Wethington, a Kentucky native,
and has 4 beautiful children who also carry Mom's love of music,
one son-in-law now serving in Afghanistan and one
adorable grandson. Regina Wethington resides in Summersville,
Kentucky.
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 Barry
Morrison, born March 20, 1949, in Red River Gorge, Kentucky, is
an American country music singer-songwriter and visual artist. His
primary musical instrument is guitar. This multi-talented artist is
largely identified with the country rock/Americana genre(s) of
music. In 1968 at the age of nineteen, and with the help of then
United Artist Records label head Billy Edd Wheeler, Morrison came
to the attention of House of Cash Publishing. Wheeler's assistance
in presenting Morrison's music to Cash's publishing company,
resulted in House of Cash being the first to publish a Barry
Morrison song. His recording career began in 1970 and with the
release of "Snakey Hollow Stud", a song released on the RCM label
which charted on the Independent Country Music Charts at number
one. Several other of Morrison's releases charted within the top
five on the Independent Country Music Charts during the period 1990
- 1993; with "There Ain't No Country" being the only other of his
songs to reach the number one position. Retired from the business
of performing and touring since 1993, and although confronted with
a diagnosis of ongoing severe clinical depression, the offer to
record his music on his own terms for a Nashville label thrust him
back into recording and performing in 2007. That year saw him
touring in support of his newly released album "A Cold Wild Wind"
and appearing at venues throughout the central and southeastern
United States. In 2009 Morrison returned to the recording studio as
he prepared to headline the 2010 Walk the Line- Good Hearted Woman
Tour. To this point the Barry Morrison discography chronicles the
very sporadic, but still very powerful musical output of a
consummate singer/songwriter. The 2010 Kentucky Writers Day
Celebration welcomes him to our stage.
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Singer-Songwriter, Recording
Artist, and Actress, Sarah Elizabeth Burkey, has performed
in 18 countries but has
called Kentucky home all her life. Sarah plays 11 instruments and
her work appears on 15 albums. Sarah Elizabeth is to Kentucky what
Fats Domino was to New Orleans. Fats epitomized the sound of the
Crescent City in his time, equally giving an honorable nod to his
musical ancestry while carrying the torch on to his generation.
Sarah does this too, in our context and in our time. Her sound is
deeply rooted in the Kentucky hills, with a voice sweeter than a
honeysuckle vine in spring and old as the current of the Ohio
River.
Sarah Elizabeth Burkey was born
and raised on Rural Route 4, Kevil, Kentucky. Her unique musical
and literary compositions are born of this rich history. Sarah's
work has been published in books and literary journals in the US
and Europe.
The non-fiction book
Western Kentucky: Lost & Forgotten, Found & Remembered
by Sarah Elizabeth and Ron Whitehead, a travel book unlike any
other, is a must read! Inspired by hiking 325 miles for 19 days
across Kentucky forests, fields, backroads & railroads, it is the
companion book to Sarah's album
When The Redbuds Bloom.
Sarah Elizabeth was the keynote
speaker and featured performer at Ohio University's 8th Annual
Women of Appalachia Conference in 2006. Sarah plays the lead in the
independent feature film Red Velvet Cake, filmed entirely in
Kentucky. This film has not yet been released.
Sarah recorded her latest album
DON'T DIE YET immediately upon returning from the Sacred
Black Hills of South Dakota where she spent a great deal of time on
the Sioux Reservation with the International Council of 13
Indigenous Grandmothers. Grammy Nominated Musician, Tony Redhouse
accompanies Sarah on this album with Native American flute and drum
plus many other instruments from indigenous cultures of the world.
Sarah Elizabeth's songwriting drips with passion and a sacred
appreciation of life.
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Betty Pace is an award winning,
bestselling children’s book writer. She is the author of seven
children’s books, Donald’s Dump Truck, I Miss My Dad, Donna’s
Christmas Birthday, Abraham Lincoln, Clippety-Clop, Clippety-Clop,
Two Little Rascals and Chris Gets Ear Tubes, which is a best
seller. When Dachii Pharmaceutical Corporation developed a new drug
to administer to patients after ear tube surgery, they purchased
copies of Betty’s book Chris Gets Ear Tubes and distributed them to
Ear, Nose and Throat doctors throughout the United States and
foreign countries. The book was used to advertise their new drug
Floxin. Two Little Rascals is Betty’s latest children’s book.
She specializes in sensitive childhood issues and has
published more than a hundred articles and poems. Betty is a former
newspaper columnist and her children’s books, “Party in the
Farmyard and Bully Trouble on the Double,” are scheduled to be
published in April 2011. She is currently working on a novel about
her first year teaching experience.
Betty has taught school, served as a guidance
counselor and Director of Federal Programs.
She is a certified grant writer and
grant reviewer for the US Department of Education. She has served
in the capacity of consultant to the Office of Juvenile Justice in
Washington, D.C. She was Director of a Title 1 program that won
national acclaim toward excellence in education for the state and US Department of
Education for two consecutive years.
 Ed McClanahan is a native of Brookville,
Kentucky. A graduate of Miami University in Ohio and the
University of Kentucky, he has taught English and creative
writing at Oregon State University, Stanford University, the
University of Montana, the University of Kentucky and Northern
Kentucky University. His books include The Natural
Man (a novel), Famous People I Have Known, A Congress
of Wonders, and My Vita, If You Will. McClanahan
is now working on a novel, The Return of the Son of Needmore. |
Ronnie Payne has been in the music
business pretty much all his life. He, like many before him, got
started as a young boy singing in Church. Ronnie's first time on
stage was when he and his brother James won second prize in a
talent contest at Renfro Valley when he was about fourteen and his
brother was thirteen. By the time he was sixteen he was playing
rhythm guitar with Jewel Noe from Somerset, KY. While with that
band, he played a regular live broadcast at WRVK radio in Mt.
Vernon. His next group, "Patch of Blue", was formed in the mid
sixties while living in Lancaster. They played many current hits of
that era, including songs by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones,
Johnny Rivers and more. After serving in the U.S. Navy, Ronnie went
to Louisville and began making his way around the music scene
there. He started off in a small neighborhood tavern, but quickly
moved up to bigger venues. Ronnie began playing bass guitar and was
soon considered to be one of the best in the business. He got to
know many of the area's top musicians and was soon doing studio
work as well as the nightclub scene. Ronnie played in some of the
most popular bands in the area, playing everything from pop to
bluegrass. Some of the groups he was with opened for nationally
known acts to include Atlanta Rhythm Section, Mitch Ryder and the
Detroit Wheels, Shenandoah, Earl Thomas Conley, Johnny Paycheck,
Marty Stuart, Alabama, Hank Jr., Keith Whitley and others. Most
recently, he was with a great group of players called "Ron Payne
and Yellowstone", playing popular country and southern rock. A well
respected and seasoned performer, Ronnie resides, once again in
Lancaster, KY and has become a great addition to our growing local
music scene.
Andy Rice, a native of Pulaski County, Kentucky currently
resides in Boyle County with his wife Jane. Andy's musical
inspiration comes from his uncle, who would bring his guitar to
family gatherings and perform for the family. Andy's mother
Geneva Rice was also an inspiration as she also played the guitar
and sang. Andy has written two songs, "Which Way to Pray" and
"Slipped and Fell in Love". Andy also played guitar and sang
solo in a country band named "Andy and the Dandy's" in the early
1980s. In the '80s and '90s he played with "The Kings Mt.
Bluegrass Boys." |
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A resident of Lancaster, Dan Waters has spent a lot of years
making music. While living in the Cincinnati area, he formed a
group called"Dirty Waters". They played together from 1980-2002.
The group performed in the greater Cincinnati area as well as
southeastern Indiana and Northern Kentucky. In 1981, Dan recorded a
single in Nashville's RCA studio. The song was titled "Warm Sheets
Can't Cover up your Cold, Cold Heart" and was released by an
independent promoter on the "Soundwaves" label. It was distributed
nationwide. Dan moved back to Lancaster in 2004. Since his return,
he's played as a street performer at the famed Renfro Valley and
2005-2006 as a featured singer at "Church in the Valley". He's
served as director of music in two area Churches. Dan currently
performs as a soloist, but is also a member of the gospel group
"Greg Ives and Sunday Morning". |
 Larry Ray Hafley was
reared in Peoria, Illinois. A lifetime writer, author, teacher,
preacher, lecturer, and motivational speaker, Larry now resides in
Cookeville, Tennessee, not far from Dale Hollow Lake. He has two
sons, Shawn and Curtis and four grandchildren. Larry enjoys
traveling, especially when going to fulfill speaking assignments.
Although he is a big Alabama football fan (Roll Tide!) he also
cheers for the Kentucky Wildcat basketball team!
Larry's family roots are in the
Gravel Switch/Forkland area of Boyle County, Kentucky. He says he
is the first Hafley who was raised away from a Kentucky tobacco
farm! His grandmother, Lee Hafley, wife of Earl Hafley, taught at
Forkland School for 43 years. Larry's parents, Cecil and Marie
(Coyle) Hafley, were from the Forkland area of Boyle County, but
moved to Peoria, Illinois, during WWII. You may contact Larry via
E-mail:
larryhafley1@cs.com, or by phone 931-510-9997.
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.jpg) Jon
Nesbitt, a Pennsylvania native, has had one desire in life --
to be a successful musician and songwriter. At the age of 14
he started playing guitar and writing songs. He soon realized that
the more instruments he could play, the easier it would be to get
into a band.
At the age of
17 he learned to play drums and bass guitar. The piano soon
followed. Jon was being influenced by musicians such as John
Lennon, Bob Dylan and the guitar playing of Jimi Hendrex. He loved
the showmanship of Kiss. The list goes on and on.
Jon realized
that a true musician should be open to different styles of music
from rock and blues to folk and country. This line of thought
has helped him develop his own style. Over the years he has
worked with many of Central Kentucky's top country and rock variety
bands. He has also preformed as a solo act.
Jon doesn't
want to be classified as a "one style writer". He wants to be
known as a true musician, songwriter and performer. With his
love for music and a God given talent,
Jon has the ability to succeed.
|
 Call
it traditional acoustic blues bluegrass alternative country with
regular original words, and sometimes long words, too, put to a
melody, and sung with a drawl. Influenced primarily by old
songwriters and blues singers, Aaron Raitiere has been
writing and performing original songs since his childhood in
Kentucky. His swampy songs and soulful voice are a pleasure to
even the most critical ear.
Aaron's new solo CD "Kissin' Machine" is complete. Hear songs at
www.myspace.com and buy the
album at www.cdbaby.com.
 Paula Hill grew up in Danville, where her
father West T. Hill was chairman of the theatre department of
Centre College. He later founded West T. Hill Community
Theatre and gave Paula a great love for writing and all the fine
arts. Paula taught English and Theatre at the University of
Kentucky, Lexington Community College and Centre College. She
designs and leads fine arts tour groups to New York, London and
Tuscany. Her compositions include a chapbook of poetry: By
Heart, writing and directing plays at the West T. Hill
Community Theatre, and writing a business column for The
Advocate-Messenger. |
|
 Amy
Sparrow Potts is the Rural Heritage Programs Director for
Preservation Kentucky and has worked with the Kentucky Crossroads
Rural Heritage Development Initiative (RHDI) program since 2006.
The RHDI is one of two demonstration programs in the country
sponsored by the National Trust for Historic Preservation to help
develop and implement preservation-based economic development
strategies in rural areas. Programs of this initiative include a
statewide barn preservation program, rural survey and documentation
projects, rural design guidelines, oversight of a National Scenic
Byway dedicated to Abraham Lincoln's early years, an oral history
website to document rural traditions and folklore, and various
technical assistance for rural preservation issues.
Previously, Amy worked as Executive Director
of the Harrodsburg Kentucky Main Street Program and completed
studies at Berea College and Appalachian State University (Boone,
North Carolina) with an academic background in cultural studies.
She is married to Craig Potts and has two sons, Sam and Simon.
She will speak on behalf of the historic preservation efforts
underway for the Penn's Store and rural preservation efforts in the
Central Kentucky region.
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Virginia
Gillespie Vassallo grew up in New Jersey and graduated
from Montclair State University with a BA in history. As I single
mom looking for a better job with more income, she entered Seton
Hall University School of Law in 1982 where she obtained her JD and
was admitted to the New Jersey bar in 1986.
Virginia is the
author of Unsung Patriot: How The Stars and Stripes Began.
It is the biography of her grandfather, Guy Thomas
Viskniskki, the founder, first editor-in-chief and first
officer-in-charge of the Army’s newspaper during the fighting
months of World War I.
Of English, Irish, Scottish, German and Polish descent,
Virginia never intended to write a book.
But in her search for the grandfather she never knew, she
uncovered his personal memoirs and historical data which compelled
her to write her grandfather’s story, a process that lasted almost
ten years.Virginia’s roots go back to the founding of our country.
Her Quaker relatives arrived in Pennsylvania with William
Penn and some of them ultimately owned most of the colony of
Delaware. Another
relative is believed to have captained a supply ship for Jamestown
colony. Eleazer
Robinson and Henry Clayton found in the Revolutionary War and are
the reason Virginia is a member of the Daughters of the American
Revolution. The artist,
Benjamin West, is probably the most well-known of her ancestors.
And, of course, there is her grandfather, Guy T. Viskniskki,
who founded The Stars and Stripes newspaper.
Virginia and her husband, Russell, who is also an author,
reside on a large farm in South-Central Kentucky where she rides
her horse, Diablo, and cares for her rescued animals.
She is the grandmother of six, three boys and three girls. |
|
 Russell A. Vassallo was born in and grew up in Newark, New
Jersey, where he graduated from Seton Hall University with a
political science major and minors in Philosophy, English and
Religion. He went on to
attend Seton Hall University School of Law, graduating in 1961 with
a Doctor of Jurisprudence.
Russ waited ten years to take the New Jersey Bar Exam and
passed on his first try.
During that period of time he worked as an insurance
investigator and started his own subpoena business.
However, Russ had always been a writer.
He wrote short stories during college for the basketball
players and many Letters to the Editor over the years.
After recovering from colon cancer (he’s a 12 year
survivor), he started to write in earnest.
His first book, Tears and Tales: Stories of Animal
and Human Rescue, is a collection of short stories chronicling
how animals can help you in difficult emotional situations.
Two other collections of animal stories followed:
The Horse with the Golden Mane and Heart of an
Animal.
For years Russ had been regaling his wife with
stories of growing up in a Mafia family. Yes, his grandfather
really was a Mafia don.
After much persuading he wrote Streetwise: Mafia Memoirs,
a book of recollections of what it was like to grow up in that kind
of family.
Streetwise does not sensationalize the Mafia.
It is a realistic look, both the good and bad, at the
culture. And it is
Russ’s best seller – a point his wife, Virginia, loves to rub in!
Memoirs of the Streets came out last year – a
collection of short stories about people who influenced the course
of Russ’s life. Due out
this spring is Russ’s first novel, Deep is the Dark, which
is based upon a young woman he knew years ago.
Russ lives on a farm in South-Central Kentucky
with his wife, Virginia, and their rescued animals.
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Mike Hill and Gordon Webb
Gordon Webb, a native of Eastern Kentucky and
West Virginia, has spent most of his adult life in
Elizabethtown and now resides in Lebanon.
He picked up the guitar in his teenage years after a
football injury put a damper on his mobility for several
months. Being the
9th of 10 children, and a teenager in the '60's, his musical
influence was rock and roll and popular music of the 50's and
60's. This is the
style he has stayed with.
Although he does not write original music, he sometimes
likes to alter the lyrics of rock and roll to spiritual wording
and perform in his church (as in Sister Act).
Gordon also performs covers in small venues with his friends
Mike Hill (bass) and Ricky Cox (drums) calling themselves The
Fogies (no 'Old' included but inferred).
Dix
River Crossing is a regional bluegrass group that has
been playing festivals ,concerts, and private gatherings since
the fall of 2009.
Whether an audience
is listening for traditional, contemporary, or original
bluegrass, this tightly knit group will meet the keenest of
expectations.
Carolyn
Crabtree is a former mathematics and English teacher
who now spends her spare time doing history and genealogy
research. Over the last 30 years she has written many
Bible Studies and devotionals and has helped compile history
books for the Forkland Community Center. She is in
the process of gatherning information for a future book about
Boyle County, Kentucky writer Sally Rochester Ford.
|
 Debra
A. Revell
is an award-winning technical writer in central
Kentucky.
She was born in Ohio, but at age 9
months, her parents moved her to the South. She lived in three
large cities in
Georgia, North Carolina, and
Alabama before
moving to Kentucky’s rolling hills.
Her interest in creative writing
began as a teenager. She was the essay editor on her high
school’s literary magazine in Huntsville, Alabama.
She attended the University of Alabama in Huntsville and graduated with a B.A. in
psychology and education, so she had two majors at this point
in time.
She was an elementary school
teacher for several years in Kentucky before she attended Eastern Kentucky University to earn a B.A. in public
relations. After this, she began her 20+ year career in
technical writing and editing. She has worked for three
companies in Lexington, Kentucky as an information developer/technical
writer. She has also worked as a marketing coordinator.
While working at Lexmark
International, Inc., Debra won nine Society of Technical
Communication awards for her technical manuals. In 1997, she
was one of three ladies to represent Lexmark at the
International Society of Technical Communication Conference
held in Toronto,
Canada.
Though she has written poems and
short stories since high school, her interest in creative
writing grew greatly when she joined the creative writing group
at Lexmark in 1998. She was a member of this group from 1998 to
2004, and she was the leader of this group from 2001 to 2004.
The group dissolved in 2004 when members experienced an
overload of work and numerous lunchtime meetings. Debra tried
to keep the group alive and going, but with attendance
dwindling week after week at their Wednesday lunchtime writing
meeting, she had no choice but to end their group.
Debra has been a member of the
Winchester Writers’ Group since May 2010.
She continues to write poetry and short stories, but has
only shared her work with a few friends and members of her
writing groups. Recently, she has decided to share her work
publicly by reading a few of her poems at the Saturday session
of the Kentucky Writers’ Day Celebration.
Lately, she has tried to write
short stories in the fantasy genre. Her next goal is to try to
be published.
Mike Evces
comes to Kentucky from Iowa City, Iowa. He resides in Danville
with his wife Anne and daughter Lucy. A former teacher of
college English and adult literacy, sometime film scholar and
ergonomics research technician, briefly a video store clerk and
a waiter, for some time a proud dues-paying member and
organizer of United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers local
896, he currently writes songs whenever the capricious whims,
or sporadic nap times, of Lucy allow.
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 Joel
Miller is from Irvine KY living in Frankfort with his
wife of 37 years. He says that performing his songs is very
difficult for him. “I am so close to the subject that the
feelings that motivated me to make up the song come back when I
perform it.”
Three of his songs …
AMY’S SONG- Remember when your children were small and
a Band-Aid (with a hug) could fix just about any injury? Adult
children have painful problems that can’t be fixed so easily.
MOMMA PLAYED GUITAR
– Before arthritis stopped the
music, my Mother could play any song she wanted……but only in
the key of “C”. I was told I had to learn how to play “Wildwood
Flower” on the guitar before I could get one. (Don’t go near
the water until you learn how to swim.) Joel’s Mom taught him
how and Joel’s Dad brought a new guitar to him from Northern
Kentucky in a caboose on an L&N coal train.
OLD GATE ON THE HILL-
Family reunions and gatherings were at my Great-Grandparents
farm in the Sand Hill area of Estill County. The gate was on
the top of a rise about ¼ mile from
the house and could be clearly seen from the front porch. As
family members got out of the car to open the gate the folks on
the porch could see their arrival and would wave a greeting. Do
you think heaven is like that?
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As a Kentucky writer, and poet,
we often survey the geographical locations of our lives. This
journey is composed of physica l and spiritual beginnings for all of
us. As a writer and elementary teacher, James Pope has been
part of this landscape as a poet, educator, journalist, and editor.
Pope, who has traveled many times
to West Africa, is the author of two chap books: For the Love of
Pure Water and Alone in a Dark House. Alone in a Dark House is his
latest work that he wrote with his daughter, Claire Pope, who
helped illustrate the book. Christina Lovin, a distinguished
Kentucky poet wrote about Pope's work, "These are poems of
experience and memory in the mature voice of someone who
understands the cyclical nature of existence and has found an
acceptance of life with no cruel illusions."
"The musty space," "the muted
darkness," "the memory of distant seasons," and "the distant
feeling of something giving way" are all lines from Pope's poems
that often explain the physical, geographical, and religious
locations of his work.
Pope, who presently teaches 4th grade at Crab
Orchard Elementary School, is the father of Claire Pope, an art
history professor at Kentucky's Lindsey Wilson College and Justin
James Pope, who is completing his PhD in Colonial History at George
Washington University.
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Site of the 2011 KWD songwriters "SHOWCASE"
Off Broadway Cafe
518 N. Third Street, Danville, Kentucky
Site of the 2011
KWD Saturday Events
West T. Hill Community Theatre
117 Larrimore Lane,
Danville, KY
(Just behind Off Broadway Cafe)
View the 2010
Kentucky Writers Day Events Here
View the 2010 Kentucky
Writers Day Performers list here.
For more information contact Jeanne Penn Lane at
Penn's
Store (859) 332-7706 or (859) 332-7715, or
e-mail
PennsStore@aol.com
It is best to call ahead to check times and
cancellations.
Penn's Store
257 Penn's Store Road
Gravel Switch, Kentucky 40328
859-332-7715 or 859-332-7706
GPS Coordinates: N37.549912;
W085.028191
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