If you’ve had a longing to write a book, 2012 is your year!

The Carnegie Center is devoting the next several months to helping you imagine, write, edit, publish, publicize, and otherwise bring your book – or e-book – successfully to the market. In the following pages, you’ll find workshops and classes that teach everything from the craft of writing to the art of reading in public.

This will all culminate on June 8-9 with the Carnegie Center’s first Books-in-Progress Conference, featuring best-selling author and Kentucky native Barbara Kingsolver as the keynote speaker (see facing page). The conference will offer writing and publishing workshops, as well as one-on-one meetings between writers and literary agents.

The conference will further establish the state as the Literary Arts Capital of Mid-America. Kentucky already is known for nurturing its writers, and we can claim an illustrious literary legacy. Now, we want to cultivate the next Robert Penn Warren, Wendell Berry, Hunter S. Thompson, Sue Grafton, Bobbie Ann Mason, and Barbara Kingsolver.

In the months ahead, check our website for the latest on the conference. We’ll update it regularly with specifics and surprises. And please sign up soon: with only about 100 slots for the conference, we expect to sell out fast.
Special congratulations to Lexington’s Nikky Finney, who recently won the National Book Award for her book of poetry, Head Off & Split.

- Neil Chethik
Executive Director