Darlene Franklin Campbell is an award-winning poet and novelist from southern Kentucky. She is also a first grade teacher and visual artist. Her other works include I Listened, Momma, Uncommon Clay and Looking for Pork Chop McQuade. Darlene donates portions of her royalties to aid in the fight against cancer and to fund efforts aimed at halting mountaintop removal. She holds an M.A. from Lindsey Wilson College and has done other post grad work at Western Kentucky University. She is proud of her Appalachian heritage and writes about the region and its people, not as an outsider looking in with romantic notions, but as one who has risen up out of the Kentucky soil, like a tree, with roots going four hundred years deep, touching long-gone Scotch Irish settlers, Native American bloodlines and Melungeon legends. In her spare time, Darlene is an avid disciple of martial arts and enjoys spending time with friends, family and nature.
