The James Baker Hall Foundation will be celebrating the release of the winning entry to their 2024 Book Award On Thursday, May 22nd at The Lyric Theatre in Lexington, Kentucky. The event will be from 6:00 p.m.- 8:00 p.m. and features readings, music, food and a cash bar.

Wesley Houp was the winning author in the 2024 James Baker Hall Book Award for his manuscript, Strung Out Along the Endless Branch. In 2024, the genre for the award was poetry and the foundation received over 70 submissions from non-published writers, each with a connection to Kentucky. The competition was independently judged by poet Greg Pape with the winner announced last October and received a $3,000 stipend and a publishing contract with Accents Publishing based in Lexington. Each year the foundation will be hosting the book award and in 2025 the genre will be collections of short stories.

The event will be a celebration and feature readings by Wesley from the just released book and The Buzzards, a jazz trio based in Louisville, will provide music for the evening. Each $35 ticket will include a copy of the newly released book and Wesley will be available for signings.

To purchase tickets, please visit https://tinyurl.com/JBHBookAwardLaunchGala to learn more. For questions, contact Ex. Vice President Jeanine Triplett at jeanine@jamesbakerhall.org or (502) 693-3206.