 | What Comes Down to Us: 25 Contemporary Kentucky Poets What Comes Down To Us features twenty-five of Kentucky's most accomplished contemporary poets. Together they serve to illustrate the diversity and richness of poetry being written today in the Commonwealth. The poems were collected by Jeff Worley, a poet who has lived in Kentucky for more than two decades. Although the subject matter of the poems transcends the state's borders, the collection communicates a strong sense of Kentucky as a place. Worley's introduction places contemporary Kentucky poetry in the context of the state's rich literary tradition, and the poet biographies include their reflections and, often, their poetic approach and technique. Jeff Worley is the author of three collections of poetry including The Only Time There Is, which won the Mid-List Press first-book competition in 1995, A Simple Human Motion, and Happy Hour at the Two Keys Tavern, which was named 2006 Kentucky Book of the Year in poetry. His poems have been published widely, and he won the Atlanta Review 2002 grand prize for the poem, "His Funeral." Worley has served as editor of Odyssey magazine since 1997. |
