Category Archives: news

A MIDDLE-AGED WOMAN RAGES by Melissa Helton

Accents Publishing is proud to announce that Melissa Helton’s first full-length poetry collection, A MIDDLE-AGED WOMAN RAGES is set to release on 5/15, exactly a month from now.
We believe that you will love this book and its powerful messages delivered with exemplary poetic craft! Preorder info to follow.

With fierce energy and a creative use of poetic styles, these poems collaborate as an affirmation against the evils women face and as an entreaty to “thrive in flux,” to pay “deliberate, unceasing attention” to everything in the world, “as if it were holy.”
—Marianne Worthington, author of The Girl Singer

Through these poems, I come to understand the middle-aged woman raging as a community spiritual worker…. These poems are fearless and yet they understand the importance of
acknowledging our fears and telling what we must tell to survive.
—Joy Priest, author of Horsepower

Her passion & artistry left me awed, energized, & ready to write. What more could you want?
—George Ella Lyon, author of Back to the Light: Poems
Kentucky Poet Laureate 2015 – 2016

Katerina Stoykova to Teach at Tupelo Quarterly

Accents Publishing founder and senior editor Katerina Stoykova will teach a three-hour workshop at Tupelo Quarterly as part of their Spring Series Workshops. More info here.

Workshop Description

You have accumulated a stack of poems, so what’s next? How do you go about arranging your material into a book? Should you work towards a chapbook or a full-length collection? What could be a manageable, non intimidating place to get started? What is the best way to organize the work? Should you break it into sections or shape it into one continuous flow? How can you recognize a good title for a collection? What are the main architectural elements of a book? How to keep sane and motivated throughout all this? Poet/Editor/Publisher Katerina Stoykova will discuss best practices on these and give tips to keep the process manageable and fun.

Meet Your Instructor

A Bulgarian by birth, Katerina Stoykova is a bilingual poet living in Kentucky and is the author of Between a Bird Cage and a Bird House (University Press of Kentucky, 2024) and The Poet’s Guide to Publishing: How to Conceive, Arrange, Edit, Publish and Market a Book of Poetry (McFarland, 2024). Katerina is the founder and senior editor of Accents Publishing, as well as the creator of the Accents podcast on WUKY. Katerina serves as the 2025-2026 President of the Kentucky State Poetry Society. 

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James Baker Hall Book Award for Creative Nonfiction

Accents Publishing is pleased to continue the partnership with the James Baker Hall Foundation for the prestigious yearly James Baker Hall Book Award. The 2026 edition of the award will honor an unpublished, book-length manuscript of Creative Nonfiction by a Kentucky author at any stage of their career. Creative Nonfiction may include memoir, personal essays, biography, travel writing, and other forms grounded in factual storytelling.

We define Kentucky author as someone who lives in Kentucky, has lived in Kentucky, has strong ties to Kentucky or whose work features a prominent Kentucky theme. The author of the winning manuscript will receive a $3000 award and the manuscript will be published the following year by Accent Publishing, with the standard Accents Publishing contract.

The winner of the inaugural James Baker Hall Award was Wesley Houp for his poetry book, Strung Out Along the Endless Branch, which was selected by Greg Pape.

The 2026 award went to the short story collection Honeysuckle Season by Willie Davis, selected by Toni Ann Johnson.

Fees: None. There is no submission fee.

Eligibility: Writers 18 or older. Current students of the judge, as well as personal friends and family may not submit.

Manuscript preparation: The submitted manuscript must be anonymous. The author’s name should not appear anywhere in the text.

Deadline: Manuscripts can be submitted between April 1st and June 30th. Winner and finalists will be announced in the Fall.

Award: $3000 plus publication with the standard Accents Publishing contract.

Submission: Only electronic submissions will be considered. Email your anonymous manuscript to accents.publishing@gmail.com. Include a brief bio in the body of the email.

Judging: Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame inductee Richard Taylor will be the final judge.

What’s Line Got to Do With It? Poetic Technique Beyond Lineation with Jay McCoy

Hey Poets! You don’t want to miss this Accents Craft Original session with Jay McCoy!
https://bit.ly/beyond_lineation
Thurs, March 12, 6-8pm
Online
$40

In this workshop, participants will explore poetic devices beyond the lineation toolkit or completely outside of it. While we will focus on writing the prose poem, we will touch on haibun, monostich, concrete, and various types of erasure work as well. The workshop will conclude with timed prompts for participants to try out the discussed techniques with an opportunity to share.

Jay McCoy is the author of The Occupation (Accents Publishing). Born and raised in eastern Kentucky, he now lives in Lexington. Jay is the Director of the Kentucky Book Festival and an adjunct professor at EKU and BCTC teaching first year writing, creative writing, and Appalachian studies. He co-founded the Teen Howl Poetry Series and is co-host of the Kentucky Writers Roundtable on RadioLex.

THE STONE by Joe Survant

Accents Publishing is proud to present The Stone by accomplished poet Joe Survant. Reading these new and selected poems is a form of travel, a spiritual experience, a pilgrimage to visible and invisible worlds. We hope you enjoy this book.

The Stone ships within days and currently the entire Accents Publishing catalog is on 30% off sale.

The Stone: New and Selected Poems from Asia is another gift from Joe Survant’s treasury. I urge you to read this book.
—Peter Coyote, Author, actor, Zen Buddhist Priest

Like snow falling in the rainforest, these poems are surprising, mysterious. They startle with images both strange and familiar, and let us travel to new places in both the world and the heart.
—Kim Edwards, author of The Memory Keeper’s Daughter

These poems offer a new dialect to the truths of suffering and spiritual transcendence that are at root our universal human language.
—Richard Taylor, author of Fathers

Ekphrastic Writing with B. Elizabeth Beck

Accents Publishing in partnership with the Carnegie Center for Literacy & Learning is proud to offer Ekphrastic Writing: How to Never Face a Blank Page Again with B Elizabeth Beck

This workshop will detail the ekphrastic process and provide prompts that will serve you whenever you face the blank page. Elizabeth will guide you to respond to visual and musical prompts, based upon Painted Daydreams: Collection of Ekphrastic Poems, Dancing on the Page, and Swan Songs. A fun, engaging workshop that celebrates all forms of art.

B. Elizabeth Beck is the author of five collections of poetry, including Mama Tried (Broadstone Books), winner of the American Book Fest Prize for Poetry. She is the author of the Summer Tour Trilogy. Under the Elm placed as finalist for the Book Excellence Awards. Swan Songs is her debut collection of short stories. She was a finalist in the Kentucky State Poetry Society Grand Prix Prize and has been nominated several times for the Pushcart Prize. Elizabeth is a recipient of The Kentucky Foundation for Women grant. Her work appears in journals and anthologies, including Poetica Magazine, Appalachian Review, Limestone Blue, and Harvard Education Press. Elizabeth founded two poetry series, Teen Howl and Poetry at the/ˈtā-bəl/ in Lexington, Kentucky. For more information about Elizabeth: www.elizbeck.com

Thursday, January 22, 6-8pm
Online
$40

Register at https://bit.ly/Ekphrastic_Writing

Happiness Street by Olya Stoyanova

On the way from the printer: Olya Stoyanova’s HAPPINESS STREET!

Accents Publishing is proud to present Happiness Street, a poetry collection by award winning Bulgarian poet Olya Stoyanova. Family relationships, travel and the importance of everyday connections take center stage in these sparse, deceptively simple poems.

Read a sample poem, blurbs, author bio and order your copy at:
https://accents-publishing.com/happinessstreet.html

Complete and Free Audiobook of GIRL by Wendy Jett

Wendy Jett’s WOMAN will be out from Accents Publishing this month. WOMAN is the finale of the GIRL-TAINTED-WOMAN trilogy about a young woman growing up in a complicated family dynamic. We invite you to listen to the complete audiobook of GIRL — the beginning of this gripping, multi-genre story.

Free and read to you by the author: