Axton Reading

Jeff Worley, Kentucky Poet Laureate, 2019-2020, is the author of six books of poetry and an anthology titled What Comes Down to Us: 25 Contemporary Kentucky Poets. His book, The Only Time There Is (1995), won the Mid-List Press first-book competition. Happy Hour at the Two Keys Tavern was named 2006 Kentucky Book of the Year in Poetry and nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Worley’s most recent book, The Poet Laureate of Aurora Avenue, was also nominated for a Pulitzer. He has received numerous other awards, including Al Smith Fellowship from the Kentucky Arts Council and a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship. More recently, Jeff was the winner of the Judy Gaines Young Award from Transylvania University in 2022. He divides his time between Lexington and a cabin at Cave Run Lake.