About Darlene Franklin-Campbell
Darlene Franklin-Campbell is a Kentucky-based author, artist, and educator whose work spans genres and disciplines, shaped by a longstanding engagement with mythology, religion, philosophy, and human psychology. Holding a Master’s degree and recognized as a national award-winning poet, she brings both academic depth and creative intuition to her writing.
Her fiction explores the intersections of memory, identity, and belief, often set within worlds where the boundaries between the human and the unknown are not easily defined. Over more than two decades, she has developed narratives grounded in history, culture, and the inner lives of her characters.
She is the author of multiple works, including I Listened, Momma, Touched, Looking for Pork Chop McQuade, What Have You Done Now, Rosie Putt?, and When I Was a Kid in Kentucky. Her poetry and prose have appeared in numerous literary publications, and she is the recipient of the Mary Ballard Chapbook Award. She is a member of the Elizabeth Maddox Roberts Poetry Society, the Bluegrass Writers Coalition, and the Adair County Arts Council.
In addition to writing, she is a visual artist whose work includes original character studies, maps, and fine art pieces that extend the worlds she creates. Her artwork has been featured in exhibitions focused on Kentucky’s cultural heritage. As an experienced public speaker, she engages with readers through literary events, community gatherings, and conversations that explore storytelling, identity, and the creative process. She is also developing a podcast centered on lived stories and the ways people make meaning from them.
Her work remains guided by an ongoing interest in what shapes human experience and what endures when those structures begin to shift.
Meet Darlene
My Mission!
I want to tell you a story, the kind that makes you laugh and cry and wonder and imagine! I’m pretty sure I was put on this earth to do that—to tell stories. For as long as I can remember, it’s what I’ve wanted to do, be a storyteller.
Stories help us form identities and allow us to belong, even if only for a few hundred pages, to a place and to a people. They help us define ourselves and our beliefs.
Stories have always been my friends. They offered me hope and inspiration, even in the darkest moments of my life. It was stories that gave me giant killers and dragon slayers that helped me decide the kind of person I wanted to be.
So, my pledge to you is that I will write stories that question what it means to be humane, not just human, stories that offer hope, that question our assumptions and hypocrisies, that explore the depths of humanity, even when the characters are sometimes (often times) “other.”
Why Consider Booking Darlene for Your Event:
Darlene Franklin-Campbell is a multi-talented creative voice you won't want to miss. An award-winning author, her works have appeared in respected literary journals and publications across the country.
Darlene brings her lifelong passion for world cultures, histories, languages, and religions to the craft of universe-building — creating complex characters and richly imagined worlds that captivate readers from the first page.
Her wide-ranging interests in history, culture, linguistics, cosmology, philosophy, and spirituality infuse everything she writes and speaks about, making her a compelling guest for podcasts, panels, and events covering genealogy, creative writing, Indigenous history, Appalachian culture, epic fantasy, and the arts. Whether speaking to a room or a microphone, Darlene brings warmth, expertise, and stories that leave audiences wanting more.