Wendell Berry, one of Kentucky’s most respected contemporary writers, is the author of 32 books of essays, poetry, and novels. But he describes himself first as a farmer: He has worked a farm in Henry County, Kentucky since 1965. He is a former professor of English at the University of Kentucky and a past fellow of both the Guggenheim Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation. The numerous awards he has received for his work include a citation from the National Institute and Academy of Arts and Letters in 1971 and a recent T.S. Eliot Award.

Berry’s Mixed Media reading represents a rare television appearance for the writer. Taped at the Karma in the Café series of readings by Kentucky writers at Lexington’s Good Foods Co-op, he reads excerpts of a short story from the collection That Distant Land. The story focuses on 5-year-old Matt Feltner as he discovers that there is such a thing as loss in the world—something he will learn more about as an adult. The book continues Berry’s series of works chronicling several generations in the lives of the families in the fictional rural community of Port William, Kentucky.

KET also has produced a half-hour special, Wendell Berry’s The Hurt Man, containing his complete reading of the story. In addition, Berry is one of the five Kentucky writers, all alumni of the University of Kentucky, featured in KET’s Living by Words.

Program 610

Readings from a Lexington food cooperative, including a rare appearance by Wendell Berry, one of Kentucky’s leading literary lights, and Louisville singer-songwriter John Mann with new host Mel Rexroat. (#610)