Willie Edward Taylor Carver Jr.

Willie Edward Taylor Carver Jr. is an American educator and author from Floyd County, Kentucky. In 2021, Carver was named the 2022 Kentucky Teacher of the Year, after teaching French and English at Montgomery County High School. In 2022, he resigned from his position, citing homophobia, later that same year testifying before the United States House Oversight Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.

Willie is the author of Gay Poems for Red States, a collection of narrative poems published by the University Press of Kentucky in 2023. Gay Poems for Red States was named a Book Riot 2023 Best Book of the Year, an IndieBound and American Bookseller's Association's must-have book for poetry lovers, a Top Ten Best Book of Appalachia by Read Appalachia, a top ten 2022 Southern Book in Garden and Gun, and a 2023 Top Ten Over-The-Rainbow book by the American Library Association. In 2024, Gay Poems for Red States was named a Stonewall Book Award Honor Book.

Carver has published poetry and creative writing in 100 Days in Appalachia, 2RulesofWriting, Another Chicago Magazine, Largehearted Boy, Smoky Blue Literary Magazine, Good River Review, and Salvation South.

Carver currently works at the University of Kentucky. In 2023, he was featured on Good Morning America 3, where he spoke about the need for stories that reflect students' experiences.