Lennie Hay
Lennie Hay writes of cultural fault lines and injustice in her poetry often using images reflecting her passions for water, music, and food. Her 2024 debut poetry collection, Lost in America, explored the complexity of growing up Chinese American in the Midwest. Lennie holds degrees from the University of Minnesota, the University of Louisville, and an MFA from Spalding University. She has lived in the Louisville area since 1972 and now spends time in Southern Indiana and Florida. A retired public-school educator, Lennie is married to Bruce Duncan and has two sons. Her poetry has been published in local, regional, and international journals, as well as in anthologies, and has won local and regional prizes.
Featured Book
I Feed the Dead
I Feed the Dead uses as its backdrop a Chinese spring festival that honors the dead at their graves with food and other gifts. The poems in this volume are intended to “feed” and thus honor the dead, the dying, and victims of injustice through poetry—using memory, family bonds, the natural world, art, and, occasionally, laughter. I believe that poetry, and other forms of art, serve to merge the pain of death with a joyful, comprehensive lived human experience.
Meet Lennie Hay and get a copy of their book at the 2026 Kentucky Book Festival, Saturday, November 7, 2026, at Joseph-Beth Booksellers.