Frank X Walker Jr. (born June 11, 1961) is an

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

poet from

Danville, Kentucky Danville is a list of Kentucky cities, home rule-class city and the county seat of Boyle County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 17,236 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Danville is the principal city of the Danville Micr ...

. Walker coined the word "

Affrilachia Affrilachia is a term that focuses on the cultural contributions of African-American artists, writers, and musicians in the Appalachian region of the United States. The term "Affrilachia" is attributed to Kentucky-based writer Frank X Walker, wh ...

", signifying the importance of the African American presence in

Appalachia Appalachia ( ) is a geographic region located in the Appalachian Mountains#Regions, central and southern sections of the Appalachian Mountains in the east of North America. In the north, its boundaries stretch from the western Catskill Mountai ...

: the "new word ... spoke to the union of Appalachian identity and the region's African-American culture and history". He is a professor in the English department at the

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a Public University, public Land-grant University, land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky, United States. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical ...

and was the Poet Laureate of Kentucky from 2013 to 2015.

Biography

Walker was born in Danville, Kentucky, the second of eleven children. He grew up in Danville, where the family lived in

public housing project Public housing, also known as social housing, refers to subsidized or affordable housing provided in buildings that are usually owned and managed by local government, central government, nonprofit organizations or a combination thereof ...

s. He was an avid reader as a child. Walker describes himself as both a "nerd" and an athlete in his teenage years. At Danville High School, he played

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

on the school team, was a member of several clubs, and was twice elected class president. He was recruited to attend the

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

, but changed his major to English.

Gurney Norman Gurney Norman (born 1937) is an American writer documentarian, and professor. Biography Gurney Norman was born in Grundy, Virginia, in 1937. He grew up in the southern Appalachian Mountains and was raised alternately by his maternal grandparent ...

was one of his writing teachers at the University of Kentucky, where he received his undergraduate degree. Walker is a charter member of the Mu Theta chapter of

Phi Beta Sigma Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. () is a historically African American fraternity. It was founded at Howard University in Washington, D.C. in 1914. The fraternity's founders, A. Langston Taylor, Leonard F. Morse, and Charles I. Brown, wanted to ...

fraternity at the University of Kentucky. He now holds life membership within the organization. It was during his college years that he adopted the middle initial "X", which was given to him by friends. He completed an MFA in Writing at

Spalding University Spalding University is a private Catholic university in Louisville, Kentucky. It is affiliated with the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth. History Spalding University traces its origins to "Nazareth Academy", one of the oldest educational institu ...

in May 2003. A founding member of the Affrilachian Poets (started 1991), he also launched (as editor and publisher) ''PLUCK! – The New Journal of Affrilachian Art & Culture'' in 2007. In January 2010, he returned to the University of Kentucky to accept a position as professor in the English Department. In 2013, he was appointed Poet Laureate of Kentucky, the first African American to hold that position. Walker has published five volumes of poetry; ''Buffalo Dance: The Journey of York'' won the 2004

Lillian Smith Book Award The Lillian Smith Book Awards' are an award which honors those authors who, through their outstanding writing about the American South, carry on Lillian Smith's legacy of elucidating the condition of racial and social inequity and proposing a visi ...

. Walker's poems have been converted into a stage production by the

Theatre Department. Walker was involved in the documentary ''Coal Black Voices'', where he was a consulting producer. Walker is founder and executive director of the Bluegrass Black Arts Consortium, Program Coordinator of the

's King Cultural Center, and assistant director of

Purdue University Purdue University is a Public university#United States, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, United States, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded ...

's Black Cultural Center. He regularly teaches in writing programs like Fishtrap in Oregon and SplitRock at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

Awards

* 2004

* 2006 Thomas D. Clark Literary Award for Excellence, Actors Theatre's Keeper of the Chronicle Award * 2005 Lannan Literary Fellowship in Poetry (Recipient of a $75,000 grant) * 2006

Kentucky Arts Council The Kentucky Arts Council, established in 1966, is the Kentucky state arts agency, and is responsible for developing and promoting support for the arts in Kentucky. Part of the Kentucky Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet, the Kentucky Arts Council ...

Al Smith Fellowship recipient * 2013–14 Poet Laureate of Kentucky * 2014

NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work – Poetry This article lists the winners and nominees for the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work – Poetry. This award was first awarded in 2007 and since its conception, Nikki Giovanni holds the record for most wins in this category with three ...

Work

Poetry

*''Love House''.

University Press of Kentucky The University Press of Kentucky (UPK) is the scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and was organized in 1969 as successor to the University of Kentucky Press. The university had sponsored scholarly publication since 1943. In 194 ...

. 2023. ISBN 978-1-961127-03-6. *''Masked Man, Black''. Accents Publishing. 2020. ISBN 978-1-936628-59-9. *''Last Will, Last Testament''. Accents Publishing. 2019. ISBN 978-1-936628-49-0. *''Ink Stains & Watermarks''. Duncan Hill Press. 2017. ISBN 978-0-9790724-3-7. *''About Flight''. Accents Publishing. 2015. . *''Turn Me Loose: The Unghosting of Medgar Evers''. University of Georgia Press. 2013. . *''Isaac Murphy: I Dedicate This Ride'' (Old Cove Press, 2010) * * ''Black Box'' (Old Cove Press, 2005). * * ''Affrilachia'' (Old Cove Press, 2000).

Editor

* *

Video

* ''Writing: Getting Ideas on Paper'', PBS's GED Connection Series * ''In Performance At the Governor's Mansion'' * ''Living the Story: The Civil Rights Movement in Kentucky''.

Video producer

* ''Coal Black Voices'' (the History of the Affrilachian Poets), consulting producer, received the 2002

– The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

2003 Jesse Stuart Award presented by the Kentucky School Media Association * ''KY2NYC: Art/life & 9.11'', exploring the effects of 9.11 on the arts community.

References

External links

*
Coal Black Voices
documentary {{DEFAULTSORT:Walker, Frank X 1961 births 20th-century African-American academics 20th-century American academics 21st-century African-American academics 21st-century African-American educators 21st-century African-American writers 21st-century American academics 21st-century American educators 21st-century American poets Affrilachian Poets African-American history in Appalachia African-American poets Appalachian writers Living people Northern Kentucky University faculty Poets from Kentucky Poets laureate of Kentucky Spalding University alumni University of Kentucky alumni Writers from Danville, Kentucky