Hopkinsville Native Wins ALA Award

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The Black Caucus of the American Library Association has given its 2013 Best Poetry Award to Hopkinsville native and author bell hooks for her book "Appalachian Elegy."

The 79-page book is a collection of poems inspired by her childhood in Kentucky.

Hooks is the author of more than 30 books. She has been ranked as one of the most influential American thinkers by Publisher's Weekly.

She is the distinguished professor in residence in Appalachian studies at Berea College.

Hooks was born Gloria Jean Watkins. On her Berea College webpage, she says she uses the lowercase pen name bell hooks, based on the names of her mother and grandmother, to emphasize the importance of the substance of her writing as opposed to who she is.