Bent Cedar Mountain: Three Poems From the Novel-in-Verse

Three poems from Julie Hensley’s Bent Cedar Mountain, where coal country’s debts come due in parking lots and Easter kitchens.

Julie Hensley is a core faculty member of the Bluegrass Writers Studio at Eastern Kentucky University, where she teaches both fiction and poetry. She is the author of several books, including Viable, Landfall: A Ring of Stories, Five Oaks, and Bent Cedar Mountain. South Arts selected her as its 2026 Literary Fellow for the state of Kentucky.