User:Consuela Tracolli/darlenefranklincampbell

Darlene Franklin-Campbell (born September 26, 1965, Wanda Darlene Franklin) is an American poet, painter and novelist best known for her novel, I Listened, Momma. Darlene is also an environmental activist and advocate of cancer research and prevention. Her fiction is known for its authenticity, strong voice, memorable characters and descriptions of southern Appalachian life in the late twentieth century.

Early life and education

Darlene Franklin was born in Glasgow, Kentucky, and grew up in southern Adair County, Kentucky, in various small communities situated between the Green and Cumberland Rivers known as Upper Cumberland. This distinct region of Southern Appalachia provides the setting for her novel, I Listened, Momma and is the central backdrop to most of her poetry.

Campbell comes from a background of mixed ancestry with her mother’s heritage being a mixture of British Isles and Melungeon while her father's ancestry was predominately Cherokee and Mexican.

Campbell holds and Master’s degree from Lindsey Wilson College where she first attended as a result of an art scholarship. She has also done post graduate work at Western Kentucky University.

Writing

Darlene Franklin-Campbell received the 2012 Mary Ballard Chapbook Poetry Award for her collection, Uncommon Clay, which was published by Casey Shay Press in March of 2012. Prior to this, her poetry appeared in various publications with proceeds going to aide in the fight against Mountain Top Removal.

In the fall of 2009, her work was included along with Silas House, Wendell Berry, Jesse Stuart, Lee Smith and other Appalachian authors in Coal Country, Rising up Against Mountain Top Removal, an anthology that accompanied the movie with Ashley Judd, released by Sierra Productions.

Campbell's novel, I Listened, Momma, was first published in 2010 by MoonGypsy Press and recieved the Predators and Editors Reader's Poll Award for Young Adult Novel that year. In 2012, Campbell sought a release of author rights from MoonGypsy Press and signed a contract with Old Seventy Creek Press, an Appalachian-based company that specializes in literature of the region. Campbell has donated all proceeds from the sales of the novel to aide in cancer research in honor of her father, William Franklin, who died from cancer in 2011.

Activism

In 2008, Campbell's work was published in Coal: An Anthology of Poetry. Since that time, she has also had work published in Coal Country: Rising up Against Mountain Top Removal.

In 2010, when her father was diagonsed with cancer, she decided to take a stance against the disease when she publicly declared that all royalties from her then upcoming novel, I Listened, Momma would go to aid in the fight against cancer.

Works

•	2003, work appears under various pen names in multiple low key online journals. •	2004, works appear in Pegasus [journal produced by Kentucky State Poetry Society], Orleans Review & other small         publications-poetry, articles •	2005, Other Voices International-collection of poems•	2006, Tipton Poetry Journal-poetry •	2007, Instructor Magazine-article •	2008, Coal: An Anthology by Blair Mountain Press-poems• 2008, New Madrid Literary Journal-Poetry •	2009, Coal Country: Rising up Against Mountain Top Removal-poetry .   2012, Uncommon Clay is published by Casey Shay Press of Austin, Texas.

2010, I Listened, Momma-novel