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So, You Have a Book in the Works…
Previewing the Carnegie Center's Books in Progress Conference
The Carnegie Center's annual "Books in Progress" conference is coming up. (Photo by Logan Lay)
By Delia Gibbs
Contributing Writer
Photos by Logan Lay
Jennifer Mattox, the executive director of the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning, lights up when she talks about the Books in Progress Conference, where writers gather each year to learn from published authors, gain insight into the publishing world, network, and make friends. Like many members of Carnegie’s staff, Mattox is both a reader and a writer, and she recalls indelible moments from previous years — like the time Barbara Kingsolver colorfully revealed a distaste for her own first drafts during a keynote speech.
“It’s my favorite weekend every year,” Mattox says, and it’s coming up the first weekend in June.
Carnegie Center Executive Director Jennifer Mattox.
Further consolidation and other changes within the publishing industry have made the path to publication even more difficult for emerging writers. As presses have merged and others have closed, agents have to work harder than ever to place the work of the writers they represent with potential publishers. That leaves less time for hands-on editorial development, meaning agents are increasingly looking for manuscripts that are already highly polished and commercially viable.
Even so, Mattox emphasizes that publication is still within reach, and underscores that the fact that Kentucky is home to so many published writers provides powerful “proof of concept.” On the subject of getting published, Mattox says, “it’s absolutely possible — but you have to make sure your book is in the best shape it can be before going onto that next step.” The Books In Progress Conference is designed to help writers have the best chance at getting their writing out in the world — and to cheer them on along the way.
Most conference-goers travel from within Kentucky, but Mattox says that those who fly in have been surprised by the extraordinary sense of camaraderie they find. The publishing industry is often perceived as cold and competitive, but in the Bluegrass State, visitors might feel as though someone has slipped them rose-colored glasses.
Mattox, who’s working on her second novel, remembers the times she’s submitted her own work to the conference’s annual “First Page Critique” workshop, where attendees anonymously offer their writing to be publicly picked apart by a panel of industry experts. Being told to return to the drawing board can be disheartening, she says. But in hindsight, the revisions suggested to her ultimately strengthened her work. Literary agents and publicists visiting from out of state to serve on the panel are briefed on how to deliver feedback in “the Kentucky Way” — that is, a little softer than they might normally.
2025 conference attendees eagerly arrive for the first day of breakout sessions.
The Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning, located in historic Gratz Park, has hosted the conference since 2012, and the weekend is made possible with the help of other central Kentucky literary partners. This year’s collaborators include Accents Publishing, Bluegrass Writers Coalition, and Blah, Blah, Blah Writers’ Group.
This year’s keynote speaker, Willie Edward Taylor Carver Jr., hails from Floyd County in Eastern Kentucky, and in 2022, was named the Kentucky Teacher of the Year. In Gay Poems for Red States (published by the University Press of Kentucky), he writes both frankly and compassionately about a home that hasn’t been hospitable to people like him and his husband. It was named the 2024 Stonewall Book Award Honor Book.
2026 keynote speaker, Willie Edward Taylor Carver Jr. (Photo from author's site)
Carver published another book this year and I read it slowly, unwilling to miss any detail of its people, place, or dialogue. Tore All To Pieces (also published by the University Press of Kentucky) is set in the fictional rural town of Mosely, where everybody knows everybody’s family tree. Through alternating poems and short stories, readers come to know this place intimately — both the contours of its mountains and hollers and its people’s relationships, struggles, and longings. In his “how the hell does someone even write like that?” passages, Carver describes how the people of Mosely ponder their neighbors, feel the sun warm their skin, and brace for floods. They reckon with their values and remember their dead.