Silas House is one of Kentucky’s most acclaimed contemporary authors—a best-selling novelist and former Kentucky poet laureate who recently published his first two books in new genres for him: a collection of poetry and a mystery novel.
Marcia Thornton Jones and Debbie Dadey were Lexington educators 35 years ago, when they decided to write a children’s book. Now, often writing as a team, they have become among the most prolific and successful children’s authors in the business, with an estimated 46 million books sold worldwide.
Jeff Worley is a former Kentucky poet laureate who has published 10 poetry collections and more than 500 poems in journals. His poems sometimes display a mastery of something many modern poets often avoid: humor.
These four writers will be inducted into the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame this year, along with two deceased authors: Frederick Smock, an acclaimed Louisville poet and teacher at Bellarmine University, who died in 2022; and Lowell Harrison, a renowned Kentucky historian, author and longtime history professor at Western Kentucky University, who died in 2011.
The induction ceremony, which is free and open to the public, will be at 7 p.m. on March 30 at the historic Kentucky Theatre in downtown Lexington. All four living inductees plan to attend.
Learn more about these Kentucky literary icons in this special section, written by Tom Eblen, a former Lexington Herald-Leader columnist and managing editor who is now the literary arts liaison at the Carnegie Center for Literacy & Learning in Lexington.
2026 Inductees (Click name for more...)