# 20 THE SPORT OF KINGS
| Author : | C. E. Morgan BEREA, KY |
| Artist : | Agustin Zarate LEXINGTON, KY |
| Sponsor : | VisitLEX |
C. E. Morgan (1976- ): The Sport of Kings
Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, C. E. Morgan came to Kentucky to study English and music at Berea College and has lived mostly in the Commonwealth ever since. A graduate of Harvard Divinity School, she is the author of the acclaimed 2009 novel, All the Living, which focuses on the hardscrabble life of a tobacco-farming couple in Kentucky. Her second novel, The Sport of Kings, has won numerous awards, including a 2016 Kirkus Prize for Fiction. In 2017, the book was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The subject of this sweeping, complex novel is the history of racism in America as revealed in the people and places connected with the horse-racing industry. This epic story, which takes place in Cincinnati and central Kentucky, unfolds over a span of 250 years—from the Revolutionary War to 2006.
Agustin Zarate:
BOOKBENCHESLEX.ORG
I chose to illustrate C.E. Morgan’s book, The Sport of Kings. The story takes us through three generations of a farm family, from crops to thoroughbred breeding. We see their desire for greatness, interrupted by the frailties of man, by racism, by the divide between rich and poor. Agustin Zarate is an artist living in Lexington, Ky.