Writer, teacher, and editor, Leatha Kendrick received the 2025 Judy Gaines Young Award, recognizing a body of work by an author from the Appalachian region. Author of five poetry collections, Kendrick's recent poems and scholarly articles appear in Still: The Journal, Kansas City Review, Good River Review, Hood of Bone Review, and Appalachian Journal. Essays and poems also are gathered in the Anthology of Appalachian Writers, Volume XVII; Troublesome Rising: A Thousand-Year Flood in Eastern Kentucky; The Southern Poetry Anthology, Volume III: Contemporary Appalachia; and What Comes Down to Us: Twenty-Five Contemporary Kentucky Poets.