Katerina Stoykova, President

Katerina Stoykova is the author of Between a Bird Cage and a Bird House (University Press of Kentucky, 2024) and The Poet’s Guide to Publishing: How to Conceive, Arrange, Edit, Publish and Market a Book of Poetry (McFarland, 2024). Katerina is the founder and senior editor of Accents Publishing, as well as the creator of the Accents podcast on WUKY. Katerina served as a Director of the Kentucky Book Festival, as well as the Director for the Center for the Book in Kentucky and is the 2025-2026 President of the Kentucky State Poetry Society. 

Deidra White, Vice President

Deidra White, a Lexington native and 2024 UK MFA graduate, is an aspiring Affrilachian Poet and BCTC English instructor whose work explores Black womanhood and the ties between past and present. She is a multi-award-winning writer, earning the 2022 Farquhar Award for Poetry, the 2023 MFA Nonfiction Award for DUCK, the 2024 Broadside Poetry Contest for When They Came, and others. She wrote and voiced UK’s commercial spot airing during all basketball games.

Trish Jaggers, At-Large Member

Clay Matthews, At-Large Member

Clay Matthews has published poetry in journals such as American Poetry Review, Image, Kenyon Review, Appalachian Review, The Southern Review, and elsewhere. He is the author of several collections of poetry, and his next collection, Birds Sing, Anyway, is forthcoming from Cornerstone Press. He currently lives in Elizabethtown, and teaches at Elizabethtown Community & Technical College.

Lucy Oquaye

Susanna Spearman-Orlando, Secretary & Pegasus Editor

Susanna Spearman (they/she) is a queer, Appalachian poet originally from South Carolina. They received their MFA from EKU’s Bluegrass Writers Studio. Susanna has poems in West Trade Review, Still: The Journal, Untelling, Meow Meow Pow Pow and others. They were the 2023 winner of the BGWS Emerging Writer Award for Poetry and they’re a full-time Humanities Instructor teaching ESL/ English at Bluegrass Community and Technical College.

Jessica Taylor, Membership Chair & Newsletter Editor

Jessica Taylor is a poet from Lexington. She is the leader of the Teen Howl Poetry Series, which is an open-mic opportunity for writers 21 and under. In her spare time, she enjoys hot yoga, spending time with her friends, and annoying her cats.  

Jon Thrower (1973-2025)

Pegasus Editor 2020-2025

Jon Thrower has been active in underground publishing since the late 1980s, working as an editor for small presses like Ligature, The Legendary, and Univocal Publishing. He edits Pegasus for the Kentucky State Poetry Society and contributes to Workhorse, focusing on LexPoMo and Yearling. A writer, artist, musician, and educator, he lives in Lexington with Karen, Merdle, and a 1965 Ludwig Club Date drum kit in Champagne Sparkle.

Bill Verble, Treasurer

Bill Verble began writing poetry several years ago as a way to capture the whispers in the white space of the page. His poetic inspirations abound but include Mark Strand, Dorianne Laux, and Robert Hayden. He’s published in Okay Donkey, Spare Parts Literary, and the Yearling, where he was honored with a Pushcart nomination in 2023. Bill’s debut chapbook, Absence Descending, will be published in late 2025 by Broadstone Books. He works and lives in Lexington with his family and two large, unruly cats. 

Marianne Worthington, Adult Contest Coordinator

Marianne Worthington is author of The Girl Singer (University Press of Kentucky, 2021), winner of the 2022 Weatherford Award for Poetry. She cofounded and was poetry editor of Still: The Journal, an online literary magazine publishing writers, artists, and musicians with ties to Appalachia (2009-2024). Her second book of poems, Water. Witness. Word., is forthcoming from Belle Point Press. She lives, writes, and teaches in southeastern Kentucky.