It’s been just about one year since the foundation announced our intention of producing one book award a year to help an unpublished author reach their dream of publishing a book. Seventy submissions later, the judging complete and honors given out, it is now time to party! Complete with buzzards . . . well, sort of. More on that later.

From a very young age, Toni Ann Johnson knew the arts would be a huge part of her life. At 12, she began improv, at 14 she was accepted into the Young Actors at Strasberg Program in New York and at 17 she entered New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. And her love of different aspects led to a career path that took her on several journeys.

From acting, she developed an interest in scripts and how they were put together, Then she ventured into playwriting which led to screen writing and a move to Los Angeles. The move to LA and screenwriting provided a set up of lost control over her writing and a bad case of burnout. She went back to school and received her Masters in Fine Arts and began the journey as a writer.

In the first year of any organization, there is a lot that goes into establishing your identity as well as sealing your mission and what your purpose is for existing. From the beginning people have encouraged us “to go where the writers are” and beginning in May, we plan to take the show on the road to begin to work in other parts of the state.

On Thursday, April 24th, Governor Andy Beshear said thank you to outgoing Kentucky Poet Laureate, Silas House, and introduced Kathleen Driskell, chair of the Nausland-Mann Graduate School of Writing at Spalding University as the new Kentucky Poet Laureate. She is an award winning poet, essayist, teacher and has been a leader in the professional organization of creative writers. The foundation has worked with Kathleen and Spalding University on several projects and we know . . . just like Silas . . . she will do an excellent job in telling the story of Kentucky’s rich literary tradition.

The James Baker Hall Foundation is proud to announce a collaboration with Christopher McCurry, owner of Workhorse LLC, a community publishing company that was created to make studying and publishing more accessible to working writers. The partnership with the foundation will provide funding for four programs.

Kentucky’s Writer’s Day is a yearly celebration of literary artists in the Commonwealth. The event was created by the Kentucky General Assembly in 1990 to be observed on or around April 24th which coincides with the birthday of Robert Penn Warren, a renowned Kentucky writer. Warren, a native of Todd County, was awarded three Pulitzer Prizes and served as the United States first Poet Laureate.