It is National Library Week - Yay! As I celebrate the week, I find myself thinking not only about all of the libraries that I love, but also all of the books within them, and even more elementally, all of the words that comprise those very books.
I am a logophile - a true lover of words. For proof, let me offer as evidence that I sleep with a dictionary on my nightstand in case I should come across a word I don't recognize as I read before sleep.
As an avid reader and thesaurus junkie, I am always moved by writers with the gift of reinventing words. Whether through the sassy new use of a tired old word, or the creation of a brand new hybrid word, I am excited by those with a vision for the rearrangement of letters into something meaningful.
Frank X. Walker is one such linguistic visionary and it is for this reason that I chose him as the subject of one of Blazer Library's display cases for the month of April. Mr. Walker is a native of Kentucky, a graduate of UK, a professor and writer-in-residence at NKU, a contributor to National Public Radio, the recipient of countless fellowships and accolades, and the author of four poetry collections. He is a man of many accomplishments - too many to recount here - but of all of them, the triumph that impresses me most is his creation of the word "Affrilachia". To conceive of a new word in a world already full to the brim of words, and then for that word to be so useful, to make so much sense, and to be so easily embraced into our lexicon - well, that's sort of amazing.
Cheers to Frank X. Walker, Affrilachian Poet and Artist!
Learn more about Mr. Walker at his website: http://www.frankxwalker.com/
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