An Evening of Poetry from Accents Publishing

Paul Sawyier Public Library, in partnership with Lexington's Accents Publishing, presents an evening of poetry featuring Kentucky authors LeTonia Jones and Katerina Stoykova. A signing will follow with books available for purchase.

LeTonia Jones is a lifelong Kentuckian who has used the alchemy of arts and activism for over 25 years. She has led public arts campaigns and projects with the purpose of centering the lived experiences of those pushed to the margins, while at the same time stirring emotions, facilitating space for insight, and moving audiences and communities toward greater acts of care and love. In 2007, while employed at the Kentucky Domestic Violence Association, she collaborated with author and award-winning playwright Eve Ensler and V-Day to produce and pilot a two-week statewide arts and activism festival and awareness campaign to end violence against women and girls in Kentucky reaching 1.2 million Kentuckians. In 2009, she co-created and co-facilitated SwallowTale Project, which entered correctional institutions. The project culminated in a book called SwallowTale Project, which featured writings from incarcerated women in Kentucky. In 2020, LeTonia co-founded Bloodroot Ink, a writing circle for Black, Indigenous, and Womyn of Color. LeTonia Jones lives in Lexington, Kentucky with her two dogs, Mojo and Peggy. Black Girl at the Intersection introduces her as a poet who believes acts of witnessing and acts of being witnessed are revolutionary.

Katerina Stoykova is the author of several poetry books, most recently Between a Bird Cage and a Bird House (University Press of Kentucky, 2024). She is the founder and Senior Editor of Accents Publishing, where she has selected, edited, and published close to 100 poetry collections. Katerina acted in the lead roles for the independent feature films Proud Citizen and Fort Maria, both directed by Thom Southerland. Her poems have been translated into German, Spanish, Ukrainian, Bangla, Farsi, and The Eight Floor Balcony – a volume of her selected poems translated into Arabic by acclaimed poet Khairi Hamdan, was published by Dar Al Biruni press.