Kentucky Poet Laureate Frank X Walker is a full Professor in the department of English and the African American and Africana Studies Program at the University of Kentucky. The founding editor of Pluck! The Journal of Affrilachian Arts & Culture is a Cave Canem Fellow, co-founder of the Affrilachian Poets, and the author of six collections of poetry including Turn Me Loose: The Unghosting of Medgar Evers, winner of the 2014 NAACP Image Award for best poetry collection. He is the originator of the word “Affrilachia”, and is dedicated to deconstructing and forging a new definition of a pluralistic Appalachia.