Louisville Literary Arts
Advisory Board
Emily Bingham is an historian and author, born in Louisville, Kentucky to the renowned Bingham journalism family. No surprise that she decided to be a writer at an early age. Emily earned a B.A. in history from Harvard and conducted academic work at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is the best-selling author of Irrepressible: The Jazz Age Life of Henrietta Bingham (2015). Since returning to Kentucky, Emily has taught at Centre College in Danville and at Bellarmine University, University of Louisville, and St. Francis High School. Her essays, articles, and reviews have appeared in Vogue, The Journal of Southern History, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, and New England Review. Emilybingham.net
Kimberly Garts Crum, MSW, MFA enjoyed a social work career before she became a creative writer. Now, she is the sole proprietor of Shape & Flow Writing Instruction, a studio located in a repurposed slaughterhouse. There, she teaches memoir and personal essay to aspiring writers who want to tell true stories, for posterity or publication. Kim is the past president of Louisville Literary Arts and the current director of Women Who Write. She is co-editor of the literary anthology, The Boom Project: Voices of a Generation. She is working on the final draft of a segmented memoir titled, Slouching Toward Self-Actualization.
Lynnell Major Edwards is the co-founder of Louisville Literary Arts and its annual Writer’s Block Festival. She is a poet and educator. Her publications include This Great Green Valley (Broadstone Books, 2020), the chapbook Kings of the Rock and Roll Hot Shop (Accents, 2014) and three collections of poetry— Covet (October, 2011), The Farmer’s Daughter (2003) and The Highwayman’s Wife (2007), all from Red Hen Press. Her work has appeared in Poets Against the War; Raising Our Voices: Oregon Poets Against the War; and numerous literary journals including: Poems & Plays, Southern Poetry Review, Poetry East, and Dos Passos Review. She is Associate Programs Director and Professor of English with Spalding's School of Creative and Professional Writing. lynnelledwards.wordpress.com
Gill Holland is a filmmaker, a publisher and a leader in urban revitalization. He owns The Group Entertainment LLC, which includes a film production company, talent management division, a music company and an art gallery—The Green Building Gallery in Louisville’s NuLu district. Gill has produced more than 100 feature films including Hurricane Streets, which won three Sundance Film Festival awards in 1997. His documentary, FLOW: For Love of Water, was short-listed for an Academy Award, Gill is the founder of sonaBLAST Records, an independent record label featuring Ben Sollee, Nerves Junior, Kyle James Hauser, Cheyenne Marie Mize,
Gill developed The Green Building, an historic renovation that opened in the Fall of 2008 in the area he dubbed NuLu— now, a trendy art and entertainment district. Louisville Magazine named Gill its 2009 Person of the Year. In 2013, he launched the Portland Investment Initiative to support revitalization efforts and improve the opportunities, housing and quality of life in the historic Portland neighborhood, where he also operates Holland Brown books with his wife Augusta. Hollandbrownbooks.com
Erin Keane is editor in chief at Salon.com and teaches in Spalding University's School of Creative and Professional Writing. A recipient of the Al Smith Fellowship from the Kentucky Arts Council, Keane is also the author of three collections of poetry: Demolition of the Promised Land (Typecast Publishing, 2014 — currently out of print, but a new edition is forthcoming from WordFarm), Death-Defying Acts (WordFarm, 2010), and The Gravity Soundtrack, (WordFarm, 2007). She is also the editor of The Belt Publishing Series is The Louisville Anthology, a collection of essays and poems set in Louisville that showcases a talented group of contributors.
Ian Stansel is the author of the novel The Last Cowboys of San Geronimo (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017) and the short story collection Everybody’s Irish (FiveChapters, 2013), a finalist for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction. His work has appeared in numerous venues such as Ploughshares, Crazyhorse, Joyland, The Cincinnati Review, Poets & Writers, and elsewhere. He holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a PhD from the University of Houston. He currently directs the Creative Writing Program at the University of Louisville.
Ron Whitehead is a poet, writer, editor, publisher, organizer, scholar, artist, professor, and advocate for the power of poetry to heal the world. He is the author of 29 books and 37 CD’s. He has edited over 3,000 titles, published over 2,000 titles, produced over 3,000 events round the world, presented over 60 scholarly papers at major colleges and universities, as well as presenting over 6,000 performances of his creative works with musicians around the planet. His works have been exhibited and are included in major museums, libraries, galleries, and private collections here there and everywhere. Dr. John Rocco, SUNY Maritime, nominated Ron for The Nobel Prize in Literature. Most recently, Ron has been named State of Kentucky Beat Poet Laureate.