WKU Libraries Blog

Well-known actor, author, producer, and director, Henry Winkler will headline the 15th annual Southern Kentucky Book Fest scheduled for Saturday, April 20, 2013. Best known for his portrayal of “The Fonz” for 10 seasons on Happy Days (1974-1984), Winkler is one of the most recognized actors in the world. In 2003, he began writing a series of children’s novels with his partner Lin Oliver entitled, Hank Zipzer: The World’s Greatest Under-Achiever. Inspired by Winkler’s struggle throughout his education due to his learning challenges, the books have appeared on several bestseller lists including The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times. In 2011, Winkler published I Never Met an Idiot on the River, a collection of anecdotes and heartfelt observations he gathered while fly fishing in Montana. Earlier this year, he released the first installment of a new children’s Ghost Buddy series.

“We couldn’t be happier to have the talented Henry Winkler be a part of our upcoming SOKY Book Fest,” said Kristie Lowry, Literary Outreach Coordinator. “From his long running TV series and cinema exposure to his highly successful children’s book series, Winkler will attract a large fan base from a wide range of ages.”

Bestselling children’s author Obert Skye will headline Children’s Day on Friday, April 19. Best known for the Leven Thumps and Pillagy series, Skye is also the author of the comic novels The Creature from My Closet. Other children and youth authors attending include Amy Ignatow with The Popularity Papers series and Jarrett Krosoczka, author of the Lunch Lady series. Krosoczka will also lead a writing workshop on the afternoon of Book Fest for children in upper elementary and middle school grades.

Mary McDonough, the actress best known for her role as Erin Walton from The Waltons, will be in attendance with her book Lessons from the Mountain, What I Learned from Erin Walton. Mary is a public speaker and workshop leader who focuses on personal change, creating a balanced life, and returning to a sense of self. McDonough will give a presentation on body image during a breakfast on Saturday, April 20.

More than 125 authors for adults and children will be in attendance at the 2013 SOKY Book Fest, one of the largest, most successful book festivals in the state. All Book Fest events, including the Kentucky Writers Conference, will take place at the Knicely Conference Center in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Friday’s Kentucky Writers Conference will appeal to new and experienced writers, educators, and high school and college students. At the conference, a dozen authors attending the Book Fest will offer workshops on various writing topics from 9am to 3:30pm. Children’s Day will also be on Friday, April 19 from 9 am to 2 pm and is a day devoted to children in kindergarten through middle school, teachers, and librarians. The main Book Fest event with all participating authors will be from 9 am to 3 pm on Saturday. All events are free and open to the public except for the breakfast with Mary McDonough and Friday night’s “Meet the Authors” reception.

SOKY Book Fest is a partnership project of WKU Libraries, Warren County Public Library, and Barnes and Noble Booksellers. For more information, visit the website at sokybookfest.org or contact Book Fest organizer Kristie Lowry at WKU Libraries at (270) 745-4502 or kristie.lowry@wku.edu.

This month’s encore presentation in our Kentucky Live! series, taking place in Morgantown Public Library, Kentucky on October 25, 2012, focused on the history of neighboring Butler County published in the Images of America series in September by Arcadia Press. The speakers were Roger Givens and Nancy Richey, co-authors of the book in the series.

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WKU Libraries featured Taryn Rice from its Special Collections Library in its monthly “We’ve Been Everywhere” program in Helm Library room 100 on the morning of October 24, 2012. Taryn talked about her visit to the historic sites of royal palaces and towers in Britain in light of its history.

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Dr. Patrick Pranke was our speaker for Far Away Places with Strange Sounding Names Series on October 18, 2012 at Barnes & Noble Booksellers, Bowling Green, KY. He spoke about “Paths to Liberation in Burmese Buddhism.”

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The Manuscripts & Folklife Archives division of the WKU Special Collections Library recently made its inaugural entry to the Kentucky Oral History Commission’s (KOHC) Pass the Word project; the first of more than 500 collections containing thousands of individual interviews that the library intends to contribute to the project.  The first entry, Donald A. Beisswenger’s folk studies project titled “White Gospel Music in Logan County, Kentucky”, includes five interviews with Jeff and Gwen McKinney and Chester Whitescarver, detailing their memories of “singing schools” in and around Logan County.  The schools usually lasted ten days and were most often sponsored by and held in churches in the rural south, including Kentucky, and culminated in day long gospel singing events, sermons, and dinner-on-the-grounds.  Amateur singing groups often resulted from the schools, and participated in competitions at the community, state and national level; however, the typical result was the personal satisfaction of learning to read music and sing during church services.  People of all ages participated in the singing schools which were usually held in the fall after the harvest and served as both an opportunity for entertainmnet as well as instruction in the basics of reading music and voice.

“Older people such as my parents told me how everybody used to go to singing schools, anxious to go.  It was like that when I was growing up; no entertainment at home.  There was usually a singing school somewhere about every month when I was young.”  Chester Whitescarver

Since 1976, the HOHC has supported the creation of oral history recordings throughout Kentucky.  In an effort to facilitate greater access to Kentucky’s ever expanding oral history colections, the Commission published The Guide to Kentucky Oral History in 1991.  The Guide, which identified 25,000 interviews held at 41 repositories across the Commonwealth, became a searchable online database in 2001.  The latest effort by KOHC to enhance public access to Kentucky’s oral histories has been made possible with the generous support of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Kentucky Historical Foundation.  “Pass the Word”, http://passtheword.ky.gov/, is an interactive, searchable oral history resource containing information about oral history collections and highlights projects which have grown out of these collections, such as books, documentaions, and school programs.

Whether researching a specific topic for an academic project of researching your family genealogy, Pass the Word, with its collection level and item level search ability, will be a valuable resource.  Other recent WKU additions to the data base include the Robert Penn Warren Oral History Collecton and the African American Heritage in Bowling Green and Warren County project;  upcoming entries will include the Kentucky River Project and the Downtown Henderson Project.

To see finding aids for other oral history collections at WKU click here.