Alecia Whitaker

Alecia Whitaker grew up on a small farm near Cynthiana, Kentucky. The Queen of Kentucky, her debut novel, draws on that regional background through fourteen-year-old Ricki Jo Winstead, who enters high school determined to reinvent herself as Ericka and join a more fashionable social circle. Her effort strains an old friendship with neighbour Luke and gradually tests what she values about home, loyalty, and her own identity. Little, Brown published the book through its Poppy imprint during 2012; a paperback followed in 2013. Whitaker later wrote the Wildflower series, which follows a Kentucky family band entering the country-music business. The Queen of Kentucky already shows her interest in rural communities and performance, though here performance means the social role Ricki Jo constructs for classmates. Ricki Jo’s maturation balances humour and romantic confusion with a detailed farming-town setting.