James Baker Hall Foundation Expands Program Reach in Collaboration with Workhorse LLC

The collaboration will provide funding to four programs currently running in the Bluegrass region and includes strategies for expansion statewide. The core of the partnership is to expand programs that support young writers.

“We are so excited about the collaboration with Workhorse,” states Managing Director Larry Pemble. “ Christopher believes anyone can write poems and that everyone should. He is a perfect partner for the James Baker Hall Foundation.”

The collaboration will consist of four parts:

● In March of 2025, the James Baker Hall Foundation will sponsor the Young Writer’s Conference at The School for Creative and Performing Arts (SCAPS) at Lafayette High School. The one day event is hosted by the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning in Lexington, Kentucky and connects with other high school writing programs across Kentucky.

●In June, the James Baker Hall Foundation will partner with Workhorse to sponsor the 2025 Poetry Month (LexPoMo). LexPoMo has been an annual event for over a decade and challenges young Kentucky poets to write a poem every day in June and then submit five of their poems for consideration for a published anthology.

● The third program addresses the core of one of James Baker Hall’s passions: mentoring young writers. The foundation will partner with Workhorse Mentors to provide a mentoring program to young writers. The first rollout of the program will be in Lexington and Louisville, with the goal of taking the program statewide.

● Lastly, the James Baker Hall Foundation will work with Workhorse on the publication of their poetry journal, Yearling. The publication gives all writers in the Workhorse community an opportunity to publish in a literary journal that has a known vision. Each year the journal includes submissions from 40 authors.

Stay tuned for updates as we move forward with the collaboration.