Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea
Author Nancy Kelly Allen to Sign Her Children’s Books at Kentucky Artisan Center

On Saturday, July 15, children’s author Nancy Kelly Allen of Hazard, will sign her books and talk with visitors from 11:00 am – 2:00 pm at the Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea.

As a former elementary school librarian with a Master’s degree in library science from the University of Kentucky, Nancy Kelly Allen has turned her evening ritual of writing children’s stories into a fulltime career. She says that storytelling runs in her family and that spinning yarns was how her father had entertained her as a child after the supper dishes were done.

Nancy lives in the same log cabin where she was born, along Troublesome Creek in Knott County, Kentucky. She has written seven children’s books including; Daniel Boone: Trailblazer; Once Upon a Dime; Whose Food is This?; Whose Work is This?; Whose Sound is This?; On the Banks of the Amazon, and The Munched Up Flower Garden. Nancy’s writings are thoroughly informed by her rural Appalachian region and by her experiences working with children as an elementary school librarian. Her book, On the Banks of the Amazon, is the winner of the Appalachian Writers Association Children’s Book of the Year Award and is not only vibrantly illustrated by Betty Driessen, but is bi-lingual as well, with the text in English repeated by text in Spanish and a language vocabulary page at the end of the book.

Nancy’s books are regularly available at the Kentucky Artisan Center, located just off Interstate 75 at exit 77 (Berea). The Center’s exhibits, shopping, and travel information areas are all open daily from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and the café from 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Admission is free. The Center currently features works by more than 680 artisans from all across the Commonwealth. For more information call 859-985-5448 or visit the Center’s web site at www.kentuckyartisancenter.ky.gov 

The Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea is an agency in the Commerce Cabinet of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.