Tom Eblen, a journalist, writer and photographer, is the Carnegie Center’s literary arts liaison. He was metro/state columnist for the Lexington Herald-Leader from 2008 to 2019 and the newspaper’s managing editor from 1998-2008. Tom returned to his hometown in 1998 after 14 years with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and five years with The Associated Press. He contributed a chapter to the book Bluegrass Renaissance: The History and Culture of Central Kentucky, 1792-1852, published in 2012 by the University Press of Kentucky. His photographs have appeared in newspapers, books, and magazines, including Newsweek and Garden & Gun.
He has won many awards, including the 2013 media award in the Kentucky Governor’s Awards in the Arts. He was inducted into the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame in 2016. A graduate of Western Kentucky University, Tom is a former president of the Bluegrass Professional Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He formerly served on the national board of Associated Press Media Editors. Tom taught journalism ethics at the University of Kentucky for four years and has been on the faculty of The Mountain Workshops, an annual documentary photojournalism workshop, since 1995. He and his wife, Becky, have two grown daughters and two grandchildren.
