The State Capitol played host to Kentucky Writers’ Day on Tuesday, an annual celebration in honor of Todd County native son and first Poet Laureate of the United States Robert Penn Warren.
Kentucky Poet Laureate Crystal Wilkinson, Beechwood High School freshman Lupita Diaz, and former Kentucky poets laureate spoke at the ceremony which was celebrated in person for the first time in three years. The event is held on or around April 24, which is Warren’s birthday.
The Writer’s Day celebration was established in 1990 to honor the birth of Warren and to induct, in odd-numbered years, the state’s poet laureate. Wilkinson, a multiple award-winning novelist and poet based in Lexington was appointed by Gov. Beshear and serves as 2021-22 Kentucky Poet Laureate. She is the first Black woman to be appointed as poet laureate in the history of the commonwealth.
Wilkinson said events like Writers’ Day help emphasize the importance of literacy and literary events with generations young and old.
Warren was born in Guthrie and graduated from Clarksville High School. He was the nation’s first poet laureate and is the only person to win Pulitzer Prizes for both fiction and poetry.
