Featured Events in Frankfort in June, 2025 (August Updated)

About the Book: Dottie is divorced, depleted, and desperately needs a reset when she returns to Blue Holly, the Quinn family's beloved lake town retreat. She's expecting a warm welcome, a little nostalgia, and a fresh start at her Aunt Lo's art gallery. Instead, she finds the mountain town has a bit of a culture chip on its shoulders, a local busybody is shutting down everything fun, and Lo is fed up and packing to leave. In a peace offering or maybe a plan, Lo hands Dottie the keys to a condemned Red Arrow hardware store and says, Fix it up, and it's yours. There are just a few problems: Dottie can't get a loan, is thoroughly over being alone, and has no clue how to use a drill. But inspiration strikes when she stumbles across an old moonshine still, and Dottie decides on a new direction. Blue Holly will have a brewery, and she will build it. Between small-town politics, personal ghosts, and mysterious forces working against her, it's going to take more than just good spirits to pull this off. But with the help of a crew of determined locals-including the handsome and steady Crawford Woody-Dottie throws herself into reviving the Red Arrow. One way or another, she's about to find out just how much fight-and love-she has in her. About the Authors: Beth Pride is a writer in Lexington, Kentucky, where she lives on a Thoroughbred breeding farm with her husband plus thirteen other studs. A rewarding career in education and marketing led Beth in 2021 to begin writing full-time. In 2022, she proudly published The Common Wealth of Kentucky Project with artist Kelly Brewer. Beth's debut novel, Back to Blue Holly, was released on January 2, 2025. You can find Beth and her books at www.bethpride.com. Kelly E. Hill has a PhD from the University of Louisville and an MFA in fiction from Spalding University. She lives in Louisville with her family. A Home for Friendless Women is her first novel. Information Source: Carmichael's Bookstores | eventbrite

About the Book: Revolutionary and visionary, these twenty-two speculative stories edited by Lambda, Nebula and Hugo finalist Lee Mandelo explore the vast potentialities of our queer and trans futures. From self-styled knights fighting in dystopian city streets to conservationists finding love in the Appalachian forests; from social media posts about domestic “bliss” in a lottery-based, state-housing skyscraper to herding feral cats off of one’s scientific equipment; from street drugs that create doppelgangers to dance-club cruising at the edge of the galaxy—Amplitudes: Stories of Queer and Trans Futurity interrogates the farthest borders of the sci-fi landscape to imagine how queer life will look centuries in the future—or ten years from now. Filled with brutal honesty, raw emotions, sexual escapades, and delightful whimsy, Amplitudes speaks to the longstanding tradition of queer fiction as protest. This essential collection serves as an evolving map of our celebrations, anxieties, wishes, pitfalls, and—most of all—our rallying cry that we're here, we're queer—and the future is ours! Featuring stories by Esther Alter • Bendi Barrett • Ta-wei Chi, trans. Ariel Chu • Colin Dean • Maya Deane • Dominique Dickey • Katharine Duckett • Meg Elison • Paul Evanby • Aysha U. Farah • Sarah Gailey • Ash Huang • Margaret Killjoy • Wen-yi Lee • Ewen Ma • Jamie McGhee • Sam J. Miller • Aiki Mira, trans. CD Covington • Sunny Moraine • Nat X. Ray • Neon Yang • Ramez Yoakeim About the Authors: Lee Mandelo (he/him) is a writer, scholar, and sometimes-editor whose work focuses on queer and speculative fiction. His recent books include debut novel Summer Sons, a contemporary gay Southern gothic, as well as the novellas Feed Them Silence and The Woods All Black. Mandelo's short fiction, essays, and criticism can be read in publications including Tor.com/Reactor, Post45, Uncanny Magazine, and Capacious; he has also been a past nominee for various awards including the Lambda, Nebula, Goodreads Choice, and Hugo. He currently resides in Louisville and is a doctoral candidate at the University of Kentucky. Further information, interviews, and sundry little posts about current media he's enjoying can be found at leemandelo.com or @leemandelo on socials. Elias Eells is a writer, author, and cocktail consultant. The host and creator of Bar Cart Bookshelf, he pairs innovative beverage recipes with a passion for books and games. He has worked as a digital humanist, home bar educator at The Boston Shaker, event coordinator, and publicist. He's always prepared with a refreshing cocktail or mocktail whether he’s planning the next season of farming in Stardew Valley, getting ready for a fresh run in Hades, or revisiting his favorite Ace Attorney cases. Information Source: Carmichael's Bookstores | eventbrite

About the Book: A beautifully written, evocative literary page-turner about a brilliant nineteenth-century female pianist from Poland lost to history and another woman's quest to ensure she is not forgotten--with a shocking twist of a finale. Clara Bishop hasn't touched a piano since a concert hall fire nearly took her life a decade ago, ending her career as a rising star in the world of classical music. Significantly scarred and unable to play, she has turned away from everything and everyone associated with music, especially her ruthless mentor Madame, whom Clara blames for her injuries. ​Her life is upended when Madame dies, leaving Clara an unexpected inheritance: an ornate nineteenth-century metronome with a cryptic message hidden inside. Convinced this is not a gift but a puzzle Madame wants her to solve, Clara comes to suspect that the unusual bequest is the long-lost metronome of the composer Aleksander Starza--a priceless object missing since 1885, when Starza was murdered by the brilliant female pianist Constantia Pleyel. ​As Clara works to uncover the metronome's haunted past and protect it--and herself--from those who wish to obtain it, she discovers that nothing about Starza and his murder are what they seem. History has remembered Constantia Pleyel as an unstable artist who killed Starza in a fit of madness. The truth could rewrite the history of music--and give Clara the second chance she has been longing for. About the Author: Sarah Landenwich is a writer and writing educator. Also a classically trained pianist, her debut novel The Fire Concerto was inspired by her love of music of the Romantic period. She lives in Louisville, Kentucky with her husband and daughter. Information Source: Carmichael's Bookstores | eventbrite

Welcome to the 2025 Great Crossing Warhawks Youth Football Camp! Come join us at Birds Nest Stadium for an exciting in-person event where young athletes can learn and improve their football skills. Our experienced coaches will guide campers through drills, exercises, and games to enhance their abilities on the field. At the Great Crossing Warhawks Youth Football Camp, participants will have the opportunity to develop teamwork, sportsmanship, and a love for the game. It's a fantastic chance for kids to have fun, make new friends, and grow as athletes. Don't miss out on this incredible experience! Sign up now and get ready for a week of football-filled fun at the 2025 Great Crossing Warhawks Youth Football Camp! Information Source: Great Crossing Football - 12th Man Club | eventbrite

Carmichael's is excited to host Pat Williams Owen for her newest collection of poetry, The Crossroad. She will be joined in conversation by Johanna Hynes. About the Book: The poems in The Crossroad explore memory, loss, the nature of our irredeemably human existence. Like Our Town, these poems see the timeless in the everyday. They remind us to pay attention to the details of our fleeting lives.The Crossroad is one woman's journey, every woman's journey. About the Author: Pat Williams Owen is the author of four poetry books, including The Crossroad (Shadelandhouse Modern Press, 2025), Bardo of Becoming (Accents Publishing, 2022), Orion’s Belt at the End of the Drive (Accents Publishing, 2019), and Crossing the Sky Bridge (Larkspur Press, 2016). Her work has appeared in Gulf Stream Magazine, Highland Park Poetry, The Hong Kong Review, The Louisville Review, Raven’s Perch, other print and online literary journals, and several anthologies. She was a finalist in the Atlanta Review International Poetry Competition and an award winner in the Chautauqua Writers’ Center 2020 Literary Arts Contest. About the Cover Art: Speak to me from everywhere (oil and wax on wood, 11 x 11 ) by Laurie Doctor, lauriedoctor.com Information Source: Carmichael's Bookstores | eventbrite

Huffman Basketball Elite Training Camps are trusted by youth beginners to the state’s top high school/college players who want to learn how to develop and improve at the game of basketball. Come learn how to improve at the game with HB's unique basketball skill development program! *Check-in begins 15 minutes before each session *For multiple athletes attending from one family, use FAMILY promo code for discount! TWO-DAY CAMPJUNE 21/22FRANKFORT HIGH SCHOOLCOST: $80TWO SESSIONS FOR DIFFERENT AGE GROUPS:3RD - 6TH GRADE BOYS/GIRLS: 10:00AM- 11:30AM7TH-12TH GRADE BOYS/GIRLS: 12:00PM - 2:00PMHB CAMP NOTES & RULES:Led by HEAD SKILLS TRAINER WILLS LEE and HB Staff*LIMITED TO 40 SPOTS PER AGE GROUP AND SESSION *WHAT WE FOCUS ON: HB FOOTWORK METHODOLOGY FOR FINISHING, MIDRANGE, AND LONG-RANGE SHOOTING THE UPPER MECHANICS OF SHOOTING TECHNIQUE. DRIBBLE MOVES, SHIFTINESS, AND RHYTHM. TRIPLE THREAT TECHNIQUE AND BASKETBALL DECISION TRAINING. *Recommended (not required) that players bring their water bottle and ball Information Source: Huffman Basketball | eventbrite

About the Book: Set in Paducah, Kentucky, Lee Cole’s follow-up to Groundskeeping (“An exacting, beautifully textured debut novel . . . presages a major career”—The New York Times Book Review) is a powerful, page-turning story of two half brothers navigating the complexities of class and privilege in the American South. Fulfillment tells the story of two half brothers—Joel, a successful academic and author, whose marriage is in deep trouble, and his younger sibling Emmett, paralyzed by indecision and working on a factory assembly line—who find themselves at their family home in Kentucky and upend each other’s lives in devasting ways. Between them is Alice, Joel's wife, a wry, passionate young woman who is being slowly asphyxiated by domestic tedium, and whose longing collides with Emmett’s hunger for connection and desire to escape a sense of burgeoning failure and shame. As the chemistry between them escalates, the family is plunged into a violent crucible, each character brought to a precipice of immutable catastrophe. Incisive, poignant, gorgeously written, Lee Cole has written a haunting novel about class, privilege, brotherhood, and the American South, a book that asks whether people can change, and at what cost, and what it takes to build a life of fulfillment and meaning. About the Author: Lee Cole was born and grew up in rural Kentucky. He is the author of the novel Groundskeeping. A recent graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, he now lives in Philadelphia. Information Source: Carmichael's Bookstores | eventbrite

About the Book: Set in Paducah, Kentucky, Lee Cole’s follow-up to Groundskeeping (“An exacting, beautifully textured debut novel . . . presages a major career”—The New York Times Book Review) is a powerful, page-turning story of two half brothers navigating the complexities of class and privilege in the American South. Fulfillment tells the story of two half brothers—Joel, a successful academic and author, whose marriage is in deep trouble, and his younger sibling Emmett, paralyzed by indecision and working on a factory assembly line—who find themselves at their family home in Kentucky and upend each other’s lives in devasting ways. Between them is Alice, Joel's wife, a wry, passionate young woman who is being slowly asphyxiated by domestic tedium, and whose longing collides with Emmett’s hunger for connection and desire to escape a sense of burgeoning failure and shame. As the chemistry between them escalates, the family is plunged into a violent crucible, each character brought to a precipice of immutable catastrophe. Incisive, poignant, gorgeously written, Lee Cole has written a haunting novel about class, privilege, brotherhood, and the American South, a book that asks whether people can change, and at what cost, and what it takes to build a life of fulfillment and meaning. About the Author: Lee Cole was born and grew up in rural Kentucky. He is the author of the novel Groundskeeping. A recent graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, he now lives in Philadelphia. Information Source: Carmichael's Bookstores | eventbrite

Carmichael's is excited to host James C. Nicholson for his new book, Racing's Return from the Brink: The Incredible Comeback of Old Rosebud and American Horse Racing. About the Book: At the dawn of the twentieth century, American horse racing clung to a precarious existence. A wave of antigambling legislation threatened to destroy the industry until one extraordinary Thoroughbred gelding, dubbed the Miracle Horse by the media, helped steer it away from extinction. In Racing's Return from the Brink, James C. Nicholson tells the story of Old Rosebud within the context of the volatile cultural and political environment of the early 1900s. Named for a brand of bourbon produced by his owners' family distillery, Old Rosebud set a track record when he won the 1914 Kentucky Derby by eight lengths. After sustaining an injury in his next race, Old Rosebud was sidelined for years before returning to the track, ultimately recording forty wins in a career that lasted until 1922. Meanwhile, opportune promotion from certain pillars of the Thoroughbred racing community sold policymakers and the public on the notion that horse racing was vital to US security at a time when the Mexican Revolution and World War I were still fresh in Americans' minds. Though his fame has since faded, Old Rosebud was one of the most talented racehorses of his era and was once among the most recognizable names in US sports. Racing's Return from the Brink is the first book to examine this critical period in American Thoroughbred racing history and one of the sport's forgotten superstars. About the Author: James C. Nicholson is the author of numerous books, including Racing for America: The Horse Race of the Century and the Redemption of a Sport, Never Say Die: A Kentucky Colt, the Epsom Derby, and the Rise of the Modern Thoroughbred Industry, and The Kentucky Derby: How the Run for the Roses Became America's Premier Sporting Event. Information Source: Carmichael's Bookstores | eventbrite

Carmichael's is excited to host James B. Wells for his book, Because: A CIA Coverup and a Son's Odyssey to Find the Father He Never Knew. He will be joined in conversation by Ellen Birkett Morris. About the Book: Because: A CIA Coverup and a Son’s Odyssey to Find the Father He Never Knew is an investigative memoir about a son's thirty-three-year odyssey to uncover the truth and meaning of his whistleblower father's covered-up and still CIA-classified death in Vietnam. Twenty-six years after the CIA Air America plane his father is a passenger in is reportedly brought down by hostile fire in South Vietnam, his youngest son James discovers hundreds of letters his father, Major Jack J. Wells, wrote his mother, Betty, over two wars and a career in the U.S. Army and State Department. The letters compel James to learn more about the father he lost as a child. When he discovers his father was a whistleblower and the details of his death are inexplicably classified, an Odyssean journey for the truth begins. Through archival and field research across two continents, James not only learns about events that shaped his father's love for God, family, country, truth, and duty but also a government lie and a CIA coverup of his death. As the details of a love story about moral injury, post-traumatic resilience, and the consequences of truth-telling evolve, a son connects with the man he barely knew and finds himself along the way. After completing most of his research, where multiple sources corroborate what may be the actual circumstances of his father's death, James seeks spiritual answers that attempt to bring him peace with what he's learned and what he may never know. About the Authors: James Wells (PhD, MFA) is a retired Criminology and Criminal Justice Professor at Eastern Kentucky University's College of Justice, Safety, and Military Science. He has authored/co-authored sixty-five books, chapters, articles, and essays. As a result of learning his father's death in Vietnam is still classified, Dr. Wells has been on a quest to discover the truth, find peace for himself and his family, and write about it. Recent essays appear or are forthcoming in Collateral Journal, About Place Journal, Wild Roof Journal, Military Experience and the Arts, The Wrath-Bearing Tree, Shift, Proud to be: Writings by American Warriors, Trajectory Journal, and From Pen to Page III: More Writings from the Bluegrass Writers Coalition. Links to information about him can be found at https://jamesbwells.com. Ellen Birkett Morris is the author of Beware the Tall Grass: A Novel, selected by Lan Samantha Chang for the Donald L. Jordan Award for Literary Excellence. She is also the author of Lost Girls: Short Stories, winner of the Pencraft Award, and of Abide, and Surrender, poetry chapbooks. Her fiction has appeared in Shenandoah, Antioch Review, Saturday Evening Post, and South Carolina Review, among other journals. Morris is a recipient of an Al Smith Fellowship for her fiction from the Kentucky Arts Council, and grants from the Kentucky Foundation for Women and the Elizabeth George Foundation. Her essays have appeared in The Keepthings, Newsweek, Next Avenue, AARP’s The Ethel, Oh Reader magazine, and on National Public Radio. Find her at ellenbirkettmorris.com. Information Source: Carmichael's Bookstores | eventbrite

About the Book: She Gets the Girl meets Bottoms in this fun and flirty young adult sapphic rom-com about two teens who want revenge on the flaky popular girl they’re both crushing on. Cynical but sensitive Beau Carl is on a mission. She needs to know if ultra-popular Maia Moon—the girl she’s been secretly hooking up with for months—really has feelings for her. But when she shows up at the last big party of the year before prom, she sees Maia about to kiss someone else. Sweet, inexperienced Charm Montgomery is the “someone else.” And she’s ecstatic that she’s been reading Maia’s flirty behavior in their tutoring sessions correctly. But when the kiss is interrupted and Maia accepts an elaborate promposal from her douchey, popular boyfriend just a few days later, both Charm and Beau end up heartbroken. There’s only one thing for them to do—get her back. And the only way to do that is for Beau to tutor Charm on how she can get their former crush to fall for her so hard that Maia will dump her ex…and then get dumped for once. As their plan starts working, Beau and Charm grow closer too, in a way neither expected. But are either of them ready to let go of their scheme to take a chance on something a little sweeter—and scarier—than revenge? About the Authors: Olivia A. Cole is the author of ten books, including Dear Medusa, Ariel Crashes a Train, and The Truth About White Lies for young adults, and Where the Lockwood Grows and The Empty Place for younger readers. A Los Angeles Times Book Prize nominee, Olivia lives in Louisville, Kentucky, where writing and parenting keep life very interesting. Ashley Woodfolk has loved reading and writing for as long as she can remember. She started reading at age five, writing poetry and stories at age seven, and after majoring in English in college, worked in children’s book publishing for over a decade. Now a full-time mom and writer, Ashley lives in a sunny Brooklyn apartment with her cute husband, her cuter dog, and the cutest kids in the world, and she spends her days (and nights) writing. She is the author of ten books, including The Beauty That Remains, When You Were Everything, Blackout, Nothing Burns as Bright as You, and the Flyy Girls series. Information Source: Carmichael's Bookstores | eventbrite