Sherry Chandler

Some kudos

In an e-mail, Michael Czarnecki of FootHills Publishing mentioned that 2010 marks their 25^th year of publishing. In that 25 years, FootHills has brought some great chapbooks into the world, including mine and Helen Losse’s, which are #s 4 and 5 in their Poets on Peace series. I see that they have just released POP #14. FootHills chapbooks are fine handstitched examples of chapbook art.

Michael will also turn 60 in 2010. A banner year for Wheeler Hill.

I also need to announce the advent of a brand-new press here in Kentucky, Accents Publishing. Launched by owner/editor Katerina Stoykova-Klemer,

Our mission is to promote brilliant voices in an affordable publication format, and to foster an exchange of literature among different world cultures and languages.

And ambitious plan. I’ve talked to Katerina about her goal, which is to produce small attractive books that sell for about $5. It’s a sort of micro-marketing strategy of publishing and I wish them well.

We at Accents Publishing believe that readers should be able to afford the books we publish. That’s why we’re committed to providing books that offer great value at a reasonable price.

The Press will have a premiere event to launch its first book on February 4 at Common Grounds Coffee House, 343 East High Street, Lexington, from 7:00 – 10:00 pm.

Last but not least, I want to mention that one of my very favorite places in Central Kentucky, the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning, received an honorable mention for the MetLife Innovative Artist Space Award for 2009. More than 30,000 people visited the Carnegie Center in 2009 to participate in their literacy programming. I was one of them.

The abstract of their MetLife application reads

In 1990, Lexington’s mayor created a committee to discover a reuse for the vacant Carnegie library building; from that group, the idea for a community learning and arts center was born. The Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning helps people find joy in writing, reading, and learning new things. In addition to offering a gallery and performing arts events, the center’s emphasis on writing and promoting books by Kentucky authors has made it the literary hub of Kentucky. The building is also home to learning and arts organizations, an author, and writing/book discussion groups. It is also the site for other non-Carnegie events, including the Kentucky Women Writers Conference.