Frank X Walker, the first African American writer to be named Kentucky Poet Laureate, is an artist, writer, educator, and has published eleven collections of poetry, including Masked Man, Black: Pandemic & Protest Poems, Turn Me Loose: The Unghosting of Medgar Evers, which was awarded an NAACP Image Award and the Black Caucus American Library Association Honor Award. He is also the author of the forthcoming A is for Affrilachia. The recipient of the 35th Annual Lillian Smith Book Award and the Thomas D. Clark Award for Literary Excellence, he is a founding member of the Affrilachian Poets.