The McCurry Group
Christopher McCurry, poet, educator, social activist and owner of Workhorse LLC, is renowned in the Bluegrass for nearly 20 years of helping students and working writers learn and enjoy their craft. The James Baker Hall Foundation grants will provide for the growth of the McCurry Group programs.
McCurry Group Programs Include:
The James Baker Hall Foundation sponsors Lexington Poetry Month. Developed by Christopher McCurry, “LexPoMo” has been challenging poets throughout Kentucky for more than a decade to write a poem every day the month of June and submit five of them for consideration to be included in the annual anthology published by McCurry’s Workhorse company. The program receives 3000+ submissions from over 300 poets across the Commonwealth each year and is thought to be the largest generative literary event in Kentucky.
Workhorse Mentors is a platform for literary matchmaking! A digital marketplace where developing writers find published authors available to serve as mentors. Workhorse oversees the match and with the Foundation contracts with each mentor to meet the writer’s needs. The James Baker Hall Foundation grant will underwrite compensation for mentors in the system and provide the organization development capital to build the platform out to be a broad-based resource platform for writers across the Commonwealth.
Workhorse’s Yearling anthology gives the Workhorse community an opportunity to publish in a literary journal with known editorial vision. It provides young writers in the Workhorse community with an easy ‘next step’ in their training as a writer. Each annual edition includes submissions from 40 authors. The grant from the James Baker Hall Foundation will underwrite the publication and to increase contributing authorship and readership.
SCAPA Young Writers Conference
This one-day event organized by the SCAPA Creative Writing Class is hosted by the Carnegie Centre for Literacy and Learning in Lexington and connects with other high school writing programs across Kentucky. Beginning in 2025 the Foundation is sponsoring the SCAPA Young Writers Conference. We are also sponsoring a cohort of Appalachian students from the Ironwood Writers Studio at the Hindman Settlement School to attend the conference. This paradigm of closely mentored experiences for young writers is so powerful! For many it will support a lifelong community transcending geographies and prejudice, built on the heritage of Kentucky literature.
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