Kentucky poets share from works on memories and family ties to quilting

Poetry reading at WKCTC's Paducah School of Art and Design April 25

Paducah, KY (04/21/2019) — Kentucky poets, Sarah McCartt-Jackson and Jayne Moore Waldrop, will share their memories of quilting and the art form's ties to family history and poetry during a reading of their works at West Kentucky Community and Technical College's Paducah School of Art and Design (PSAD). The reading will be held April 25 at 7 p.m. in the Bill Ford Gallery at PSAD's 2D and Graphic Design Building, 905 Harrison Street.

"The poetry reading with Sarah and Jayne comes at a perfect time with Paducah's Spring AQS QuiltWeek beginning just one day before their visit to PSAD," said Britton Shurley, WKCTC dean of humanities, fine arts, and social sciences.

A native of Paducah, Waldrop said she is excited to read in her hometown during QuiltWeek. One of her poems, "Count the Stitches," from her collection Retracing my Steps, is about her own memories associated with fabrics used in quilting. McCartt-Jackson will read from her collection, Stonelight, as it weaves through quilt-pattern poems that take the listener on a journey through quilting, family, lore, and our relationship to the natural world.

A writer and attorney, Waldrop earned a bachelor of arts degree and a juris doctorate degree from the University of Kentucky, and a master of fine arts degree in creative writing from Murray State University. She served two terms on the Kentucky Arts Council and is a Kentucky Foundation for Women grant recipient. She lives with her family in Lexington where she worked as literary arts liaison at the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning. Waldrop's work has appeared in the Anthology of Appalachian Writers, Still: The Journal, New Madrid Journal, Appalachian Heritage, Minerva Rising, New Limestone Review, The Paddock Review, Sequestrum, Heartland Review, Luna Station Quarterly, Kudzu, and Deep South Magazine. Her stories have been selected as Judge's Choice in the 2016 Still Journal Fiction Contest; finalists for the 2015 Reynolds Price Fiction Prize, the 2016 Tillie Olsen Fiction Award, and 2017 Still Journal Fiction Contest; and honorable mention in the 2014 AWP Intro Journals Project. Her poetry chapbook Retracing My Steps was a finalist in the 2018 New Women's Voices Chapbook Series.

McCartt-Jackson's Stonelight won the 2018 Weatherford Award in Poetry and the 2017 Airlie Prize. She has also authored three chapbooks: Calf Canyon, Vein of Stone, and Children Born on the Wrong Side of the River, which won the 2015 Mary Ballard Poetry Prize. Her poetry has appeared in Indiana, Bellingham Review, Journal of American Folklore, The Maine Review, NANO Fiction, among many others. In recognition of artistic excellence, she received an Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowship from the Kentucky Arts Council, and has twice been nominated for a Puschart Prize. McCartt-Jackson was selected for inclusion in the Kentucky Great Writers Series, and has served as artist-in-residence for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Catoctin Mountain National Park, and Shotpouch Cabin through Oregon State University. She is owner and founder of Stonelight Studio, home of Apple Cider Vinegar Press.

For more information about the poetry reading, contact Shurley at britton.shurley@kctcs.edu or (270) 534-3243.

Media Attachments