Multidisciplinary artist, Frank X Walker is Professor in the department of English and Creative Writing at the University of Kentucky. A Cave Canem Fellow and co-founder of the Affrilachian Poets, he is the author of thirteen collections of poetry including Load In Nine Times, winner of the 2025 Pen/Voelcker Award for Poetry and Turn Me Loose: The Unghosting of Medgar Evers, winner of the NAACP Image Award, and Buffalo Dance: The Journey of York, winner of the Lillian Smith Book Award. 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, Centre College, Spalding University, and Transylvania University.
We look forward to welcoming Frank X Walker to Word of South as part of the Salvation South stage!