The Jesse Stuart Writers Workshop
April 17 – 18, 2026 ~ Delta Marriott Hotel Ashland
Featured Speaker
Al Cross has a long and distinguished career in journalism and education and is an advocate for rural and community journalism. A graduate of Western Kentucky University, he has covered every Kentucky legislative session since 1980. He edited and managed community newspapers in Monticello, Russellville, and Leitchfield, and was a reporter for the Louisville Courier-Journal for 26 years, 15 years as a political writer. In 1989, he shared a Pulitzer Prize for General News Reporting for the Courier-Journal’s coverage of the 1988 Carrollton bus crash, one of the deadliest bus crashes in U.S. history. Cross held leadership positions in the Society of Professional Journalists, including President in 2001-2002, and was inducted into the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame in 2010. In 2023, he retired from a nearly 20-year career teaching at the University of Kentucky as Professor Emeritus in the School of Journalism and Media where he was Director of the Institute for Rural Journalism, which he co-founded with another distinguished Kentucky journalist, Al Smith. Cross has been a political commentator for KET and other news outlets, and his articles appear frequently in Kentucky newspapers.
Presenters
Carol Boggess lives on a small farm in Western North Carolina and is Professor Emerita (English) at Mars Hill University. She received the 2015 Appalachian Studies Association Steven L. Fisher Award for Excellence in Teaching. She earned a Ph.D. at University of Kentucky and later made many visits to Knott County while researching James Still: A Life, published by University Press of Kentucky. The biography received the Weatherford Award for non-fiction in 2017 and the Kentucky History Publication Award in 2018.
Brenda Evans is a speaker, teacher, memoirist, copy editor, and published author of dozens of articles and essays on a wide range of topics. As a writer, she has published in small town newspapers, national Christian magazines, and four anthologies, including a true story entitled “A Murdering Band of Three” in JSF’s Appalachian Murders and Mysteries. Her memoir is Neptune’s Child.
Keith Kappes, a retired university vice-president, and newspaper publisher, editor and reporter, is managing partner of Ghost Writers in the Sky. Two of his books were published by the Jesse Stuart Foundation: The View from My Keyboard and Wit, Wisdom and Other Stuff. He contributed to the JSF’s Appalachian Murders and Mysteries and True Christmas Stories from The Heart of Appalachia. Keith is a former reporter for the Associated Press, Ironton Tribune, Ashland Independent and Huntington Herald-Dispatch. He has received numerous state and national journalism awards.
John W. McCauley writes non-fiction and poetry. His work has been published in Kentucky Monthly Magazine, Kentucky Living, The Martha's Vineyard Times, Trajectory, and other publications. His first book, Kentucky Is My Home: The Unpublished Poems of Jesse Stuart, a collection of previously unpublished poetry by Stuart, was published by the Jesse Stuart Foundation in 2025. He is currently working on a collection of unpublished Stuart essays. John is a member of the JSF Board of Directors.
Lee Pennington, the author of ten books of poetry and numerous non-fiction publications, is a native of Greenup County and was Jesse Stuart’s friend and protégé. Three of his books were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, and in 1984 he was named the Poet Laureate of Kentucky.
Gwyn Hyman Rubio, a former member of the Peace Corps, is a graduate of the MFA Program for Creative Writing at Warren Wilson College in North Carolina. Her first novel, Ice Sparks, was a New York Times Notable Book and an Oprah’s Book Club selection in 12001. Her novel The Woodman’s Daughter was named one of the Ten Best Books of 2005 by Louisville’s Courier-Journal and was a finalist for the Kentucky Literary Award for Fiction. Her short fiction has been published an anthologized around the country.
Adam Van Kirk is CEO of Right Eye Graphics in Ashland, Kentucky. He spent 20 years in various editorial and management positions with daily newspapers operations. Dr. Gifford says he is the best book designer in the state of Kentucky.
Also check out other Arts events in Ashland, Literary Art events in Ashland, Workshops in Ashland.
