Kentucky Poet Laureate 2013-2014

Frank X Walker, the first African-American Kentucky poet laureate (2013-2014), is featured within the current issue of The Louisville Review. The magazine hails from Spalding University, and so the editors are especially pleased to welcome him to the issue as he is a graduate of the Spalding University low-residency MFA in Writing. “In this issue,” writes Sena Jeter Naslund, “we are proud to include the work of three of Frank’s teachers while at Spalding: Molly Peacock…Greg Pape…and Jeanie Thompson…” Here is a sample of his first included poem, “Thanks,” after Yusef Komunyakaa:

thanks for the tug at my heart string
and each beat that skipped
every time you were close enough
to be touched or touch but didn’t.
thanks for the light that came on
and the sirens and storm warnings
after the tequila flavored kiss
and the inhibitions that took flight
joining the flock of sky gods
just outside our windows.

The issue also features poetry from Michael Fulop, Robert Fernandez, Joel W. Nelson, Okla Elliott, Jesse DeLong, John Blair, Roy Bentley, Natalie Price, Aaron Crippen, Andrew Payton, Drew Pomeroy, Brandon Rushton, Jessica Pace, Helen Tzagoloff, and Simon Perchik; fiction by Cailin Barrett-Bressack, Megan E. Calhoun, Ed Taylor, Margaret Hayertz, Kirby Gann, Gayle Hanratty, and Chervis Isom; and more.