Lee Pennington, a graduate of Berea College in Kentucky and University of Iowa, holds two Honorary Doctor degrees. He taught creative writing 40 years at UK's Jefferson Community College. He has traveled extensively. He's the author of 21 books, has had nine plays produced, over 1300 poems and thousands of articles published. In 1984 he was designated Poet Laureate of Kentucky. He continues to write poetry, and is a filmmaker. Sharon Sherman, writing in the Louisville Times, (November 2, 1968), reported on his career after he accepted a new position in Louisville. She reports that "Pennington won't allow his students to be 'suspended above life on the end of a spider web called college.' They write and submit their work for publication. They file rejection slips-or paper a wall with them-and send their writings out again. No one is happier than the teacher when his insistence pays off. 'It's like a dam bursting, ' he explained, 'When one of them gets published, you can't stop the others.'" She then quotes Pennington, in reference to the reactionary episode at Southeastern Community College, who said "We create myths about ourselves and when they're exposed it frightens us." And again, "Those young people looked at their area-and maybe for the first time they knew the truth. They wrote the truth with love, but the power structure understood." Miss Sherman then reported that "Pennington picked up a thin, soft-backed book and flipped its pages. 'Look at that, ' he said with an edge of bitterness in his voice. His fingers rested on the dedication page, underlining the words: To Harlan County. 'How ironic, ' he said. 'They created something and they offered their creation. I don't say all of it is the best poetry in the world, but it's real-it's not false, not fake.... How people can be anything but proud of these young men and women I'll never know.... Those kids have just recorded the poems for a national company. Doesn't anyone see what an achievement that is for a group of mountain kids?'" Waynette Shackelford, in her article, "Life is for Touching," in The Kentucky School Journal (November 1971), has written a revealing profile of Pennington and how he teaches. She said "Recently, while speaking before a poetry class he instigated a session on sensitivity to sight. It was brought out that a familiar object could be seen-with just a bit of imagination-to resemble an entirely different object. This new image could then be used as a descriptive phrase in poetry or other writing. Being aware of the way an object appears could be the difference between dead writing and that which is alive."
