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Kentucky Writers’ Day celebration returns to in-person event April 26 at Capitol Rotunda


For the first time since 2019, the Kentucky Arts Council will host an in-person celebration of Kentucky Writers’ Day April 26 at the Capitol Rotunda in Frankfort.

The program will feature readings by Kentucky Poet Laureate Crystal Wilkinson and former poets laureate George Ella Lyon, Maureen Morehead, Sena Jeter Naslund, Richard Taylor, Frank X Walker and Jeff Worley.

“Kentucky Writers’ Day is one of the most special occasions we celebrate here in our Commonwealth,” Wilkinson said. “We have such a long and prestigious history in the literary arts and I hope that writers, readers, students, and teachers will continue to help us celebrate this great legacy of letters. It’s important that our youth see and celebrate the ways in which Kentucky contributes to the nation’s rich diversity of writers.”

Kentucky Writers’ Day is celebrated annually on or about April 24, which is the birthday of Kentucky writer Robert Penn Warren. A native of Todd County, Warren was awarded three Pulitzer Prizes and was appointed the first U.S. Poet Laureate in 1986.

Kentucky Writers’ Day was established by the Kentucky General Assembly in 1990 to honor the birth of Warren and to induct, in odd-numbered years, the state’s poet laureate.

For more information about Kentucky Writers’ Day, contact Tamara Coffey at 502-892-3121 or tamara.coffey@ky.gov.

Kentucky Arts Council


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