Professor Kathleen Driskell Brings Poetry to Kentucky State Park with National Award

Professor Kathleen Driskell is bringing her lifelong love of storytelling to one of Kentucky’s most treasured landscapes, thanks to a national fellowship that will fund a Kentucky Poets Laureate Trail in the heart of the Appalachian mountains.

Driskell, professor of creative writing and chair of Spalding University’s Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing, has been named one of 22 poets laureate nationwide to receive a $50,000 award and fellowship from the Academy of American Poets this year. The Academy’s Poet Laureate Fellowships recognize literary excellence while supporting community poetry projects that enrich the lives of local residents. Driskell was appointed Kentucky’s Poet Laureate in 2025.

Driskell will use the grant to launch the Pine Mountain State Resort Park Kentucky Poets Laureate Trail, a new project set in southeastern Kentucky at one of the state’s oldest state parks.

The trail will feature poems by past Kentucky poets laureate with deep Appalachian roots, giving hikers a window into the region’s literary heritage while bringing poetry to communities that have historically had limited access to it.

“I’m delighted to be awarded this grant by the Academy of American Poets and grateful to Kentucky’s Cabinet of Tourism, Arts and Heritage who have been great partners and supporters of our Kentucky Poets Laureate Trail and the writing arts at large,” said Driskell.

“The stories we tell ourselves about ourselves are the way we become ourselves. Kentucky is home to many of the finest writers in the world and the poetry trail will, I hope, broaden our understanding of what it means to be a Kentuckian and an Appalachian writer while in the midst of the glorious mountain laurel found in one of our most beautiful state parks,” she said.

Driskell is the award-winning author of six poetry collections, including Goat-Footed Gods and the Poetry Foundation bestseller, Seed Across Snow. Her poems and essays have appeared in The New Yorker, River Teeth, and Appalachian Review, and in 2025 she received a Pushcart Prize for her essay Church of the Goat Man. In addition to her role at Spalding, she edits Good River Review and chaired the board of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs from 2019 to 2022.

Driskell’s achievement reflects the values she brings to the program she leads. As chair of the Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing’s low-residency MFA program, she has cultivated a community where writers support one another and help nurture the next generation of storytellers.

“Spalding is proud of Kathleen and what this fellowship makes possible for Kentucky,” said Anne Kenworthy, president of Spalding University. “This award will bring poetry and inspiration to communities across our state who might not otherwise have access to it. Kathleen has built that same spirit of service into our low-residency MFA program, and it’s core to who we are as a university.”

As the trail takes shape, it will stand as a lasting tribute to Kentucky’s poets and a new way for visitors to connect with the state’s Appalachian literary heritage, one poem and one trail marker, at a time.