Kentucky Book Festival
Book Bundle
The Kentucky Book Festival Book Bundle connects readers with Kentucky authors and artists through a one-of-a-kind subscription-based experience. Subscribers will “Find Themselves in the Story” of amazing Kentucky writers by reading a unique mix of books and collecting hand-picked specialty items created by artists across the Commonwealth. Each bundle will include 3-4 accompanying products such as magnets, coaster sets, bookmarks, or postcards, along with a bookplate signed by the author—all sourced locally and unique to each bundle. Subscribers will also receive an item from Kentucky Soaps & Such in each bundle!
Read more about the authors, artists, and our sponsor, First Southern National Bank, below.
2021 Bundles Have SOLD OUT!
Thank you so much for your support! Join our mailing list to be contacted if more subscriptions become available.
Featured 2021 Authors
MARCH
Silas House
Clay’s Quilt
MAY
Ouita Michel
Just A Few Miles South
July
David Bell
Kill All Your Darlings
SEPTEMBER
Crystal Wilkinson
Perfect Black: Poems
Featured 2021 Artists
MARCH
Rachael Sinclair
Louisville, KY
Rachael is a freelance creative (and coffee fiend) who lives in Louisville with her husband and way too many houseplants. She creates highly-tailored collateral for a diverse group of clients and lives for a good challenge. When she’s not drawing, she likes to cook, bake, preach the gospel of the Bluegrass, and feed neighborhood squirrels. Visit her website to see her work.
MAY
Brenna Flannery
Lexington, KY
July
Matthew Wilson
Bowling Green, KY
Matthew Taylor Wilson is a professional drawing person. He’s spent the better part of two decades illustrating & hand-lettering, ads, book covers, paper products & logos. He currently lives in Bowling Green with his brilliant & beautiful wife, 2 kids, & 3 neurotic dogs.
Read more on Matthew’s website.
SEPTEMBER
Ron Davis
Lexington, KY
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Four Bundle Buy
$100
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Thanks to our Sponsor: First Southern National Bank
When First Southern National Bank says, “We Believe In You,” it means we also believe certain things about you. We believe that you want to live a life of margin, where you can balance spending, saving, and giving. We believe that you want to make wise financial decisions to enable that kind of living. Because we believe in you, we are here for you every step of the way. Visit fsnb.net to learn more. Member FDIC. Equal Housing Lender.
And thanks to our Product Partner: Kentucky Soaps & Such
Kentucky Soaps & Such has been making generosity easier since the creation of signature gift baskets in 2006. We offer a variety of options, featuring our Plainview Farm bath products, snacks, and more – all built to fit almost any budget. Ordering your gifts is a breeze with our easy-to-use website at kentuckysoapsandsuch.com or ordering by phone at 606-365-0808. We would also love for you to tour our store and soap making facility in historic Stanford, Kentucky.
Silas House is the New York Times bestselling author of six novels, one book of creative nonfiction, and three plays. His writing has appeared frequently in the New York Times and has been published in Time, Newsday, Garden and Gun, Oxford American, and many other places.
March’s Book Bundle features Silas House’s debut novel, “Clay’s Quilt” along with specialty items designed by Louisville artist Rachael Sinclair. In “Clay’s Quilt,” now a touchstone for his many fans, House takes us to Free Creek, KY, where a motherless young man forges his path to adulthood surrounded by ancient mountains and his blood relatives and adopted kin: his Aunt Easter tied to her faith and foreboding nature; his Uncle Paul, the quilter; Evangeline and her sister Alma’, a fiddler whose music calls to Clay’s heart.
Ouita Michel is a six-time James Beard Foundation Award nominee, including nominations for Outstanding Restaurateur and Best Chef Southeast. Michel and her restaurants are regularly featured in local and national media, such as the New York Times, Southern Living, Garden & Gun, Food Network, and the Cooking Channel. She was a guest judge on Bravo’s Top Chef series. She lives in Midway, Kentucky. Sara Gibbs is a chef as well as a recipe writer and editor. She lives in Central Florida. Genie Graf is the special projects director at the Ouita Michel Family of Restaurants. She lives in Midway, Kentucky.
May’s Book Bundle features Chef Ouita Michel’s “Just a Few Miles South.” “Just a Few Miles South” serves up the recipes that patrons of Michel’s restaurants have come to know and love, including the Bluegrass Benedict breakfast sandwich, Ouita’s Sardou Panini, Wallace Station’s Creamy Chicken and Mushroom Soup, and Honeywood’s Hoecake Burger. Some dishes offer creative twists on classics, like the Inside Out Hot Brown, the Wallace Cubano, or the Bourbon Banh Mi. Throughout, the chefs responsible for these delicious creations share the rich traditions and stories behind the recipes. When you can’t get down to your favorite place, this book will help you bring home the aroma, the flavors, and the love of fresh foods made with locally sourced ingredients—and share it all with friends and family.
David Bell is a USA Today bestselling, award-winning author whose work has been translated into multiple foreign languages. He’s currently a professor of English at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Kentucky, where he directs the MFA program.
July’s Book Bundle features David Bell’s newest novel, Kill All Your Darlings, along with art from Bowling Green based artist Matthew Taylor Wilson.After years of struggling to write following the deaths of his wife and son, English professor Connor Nye publishes his first novel, a thriller about the murder of a young woman. There’s just one problem: Connor didn’t write the book. His missing student did. And then she appears on his doorstep, alive and well, threatening to expose him.
Crystal Wilkinson is the author of The Birds of Opulence, Blackberries, Blackberries, winner of the Chaffin Award for Appalachian Literature, and Water Street, a finalist for both the UK’s Orange Prize for Fiction and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. The winner of the 2008 Denny Plattner Award in Poetry from Appalachian Heritage magazine and the Sallie Bingham Award from the Kentucky Foundation for Women, she serves as associate professor of English at the University of Kentucky.
The September Book Bundle features Crystal Wilkinson’s “Perfect Black.” From the foreword, written by Nikky Finney: “…Perfect Black is a book of poems and legends about ancestry, culture, and the terrain of a Black girl becoming. It is a narrow and spacious terrain that enters the bloodstream of this black writing girl’s body early. It is a country that she never truly exits even though different zip codes continue to fly through her wild, wondrous, winding life. We read and we hold on too.”
Questions?
Sneak previews of specialty items included in the book bundles will be released to subscribers and on social media, but we do want to keep some surprises a secret! Some frequently asked questions regarding shipping and the like are included below.