Transylvania University has announced the nominees for its 10th annual Judy Gaines Young Book Award honoring exceptional works of Appalachian writers.
The university will celebrate the winner at a spring 2025 event that will include literary readings. Stay tuned for details.
“We are quite pleased with the breadth of experience represented in our nominees — from a poet who has just signed a contract for his second book to mainstays of contemporary Appalachian poetry,” professor Jeremy Paden said. “Likewise, we are quite happy to see the variety of genres represented: poetry, fiction, young adult fiction and novels in verse. The nominees alone speak to the rich and vibrant literary community of this region.”
Transylvania invited nominations for the 2024-25 academic year from readers, publishers and literary organizations.
Nominees
Ashley Blooms, a native of Cutshin, Kentucky, has written two novels, “Every Bone a Prayer” and “Where I Can’t Follow,” which was a finalist for a Weatherford Award. Both highly praised, magical-realist works take up life in modern Appalachia and deal with various kinds of trauma. Their nominator noted that the novels resonate with and inspire Appalachian and LGBTQ+ plus students.
Willie Carver is originally from Printer, Kentucky, and now lives in Mount Sterling. In 2022, he won the Kentucky Teacher of the Year Award. His first book of poems, “Gay Poems for Red States,” was named an Honor Book for the 2024 Stonewall Book Award. He has just signed a second book contract with the University Press of Kentucky.
Ellen Hagan, a Kentucky native who lives in New York, began her journey as a writer in earnest through the Governor’s School for the Arts. She is a member of the Affrilachian poets, and for a long time she worked as a writing instructor in the GSA program. She is the author of three collections of poems, three young adult novels in verse and two co-authored young adult novels. “All That Shines,” her most recent novel in verse, is a love letter to Kentucky set in Bardstown. It takes up questions of class, landscape, feminism and community.
Pauletta Hansel, though born and raised in southeastern Kentucky, held the inaugural position of Cincinnati poet laureate between 2016-18 (she’s lived there since 1979). Her collection “Palindrome” won the Weatherford, and her collection “Heartbreak Tree” won the North American Book Award given by the Poetry Society of Virginia. She has long been a member and a leader of the Southern Appalachian Writers Collective.
Jane Hicks, a native of northeast Tennessee, is a poet, fiber artist and teacher. She is the author of three collections of poems and has long been involved with the Appalachian Writer’s Workshop at Hindman. Her first two books won the James Still Award for Poetry from the Appalachian Writers Association. “The Safety of Small Things,” her most recent book, is a lyrical examination of her experience with breast cancer.
Leatha Kendrick, a native of southern Kentucky, has long been associated with the Appalachian Writers Workshop at Hindman. She is the author of five books of poems. Her most recent collection, “And Luckier,” has been praised as masterful and complex.
Julia Watts, is from southeastern Kentucky and lives in Knoxville, Tennessee. She is the author of multiple middle-grade fiction, young adult fiction and adult novels and has won numerous Lambda Awards. Her nominator said her most recent book, “Quiver,” addresses the current culture wars and how to overcome differences.
The award committee looked for authors with a significant body of work that resonates with the Appalachian experience, along with individual voices deemed important to the literary landscape of the region.
The recognition was established through the generosity of neurosurgeon Byron Young ’61 in honor of his late wife Judy ’62, an avid reader and poet.
Past winners
Holly Goddard Jones (2015)
Amy Green (2016)
Crystal Wilkinson (2017)
Kathleen Driskell (2018)
Silas House (2019)
Frank X Walker (2020)
Robert Gipe (2021)
Jeff Worley (2022)
Richard Taylor (2023)
George Ella Lyon (2024)