KET was on hand as acclaimed writer, feminist activist and social critic bell hooks – best known for works including Feminist Theory and Ain’t I a Woman – was inducted into the 2018 Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame. KET’s broadcast of the 2018 induction ceremony premieres Monday, Feb. 26 at 9/8 pm on KET.

KET’s presentation includes hooks’ acceptance speech, in which the Hopkinsville native (born Gloria Jean Watkins) acknowledges never expecting to return to Kentucky after leaving to pursue a degree and writing career. But in 2004, hooks returned to her home state to establish the bell hooks Institute at Berea College. During the ceremony, she told attendees that she finds it meaningful – for the first point in her long career – to finally be considered a “Kentucky writer.”

“It’s wonderful to be able to come home to Kentucky, to be [a] Kentucky writer, influenced by a life in the hills – to be a person of courage, to be self-determined, and to be a person of love,” she said, in accepting the honor.

The program also celebrates the induction of Walter Tevis (1928-1984), best known for authoring The Hustler, The Color of Money and The Man Who Fell to Earth; John Fox, Jr., (1862-1919), author of The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come and The Trail of the Lonesome Pine; and Annie Fellows Johnston (1863-1931), author of The Little Colonel series of children’s fiction.

The program was filmed on Jan. 31 at the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning in Lexington, which sponsors the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame.

2018 Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame is a KET production.

KET is Kentucky’s largest classroom, where learning comes to life for more than one million people each week via television, online and mobile. Learn more about Kentucky’s preeminent public media organization at KET.org, on Twitter @KET and at facebook.com/KET.

Contact:

Todd Piccirilli
Senior Director, Marketing and Communications
859-258-7242
tpiccirilli@ket.org