Kentucky is famous as the home of bluegrass music, a centre of coalmining and the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln; its culture reflects its geographic location as a mid-way point between the Midwest, the Southern states and the Eastern Seaboard. Beyond bluegrass, Kentucky has thoroughbred horse farms, bourbon distilleries and the world’s longest cave system.

Pulitzer Prize winning novel All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren is set in the state and records a tale of corruption in the Southern states. Toni Morrison explores race issues in Kentucky just after the Civil War in her book Beloved, which also won the Pulitzer Prize.

Kentucky offers a large range of different films, from dramas such as Elizabethtown, action like Fire Down Below, as well as a special genre, largely unique to Kentucky, coalmining, the best examples of which are Coal Miner’s Daughter and Harlan County War.

Appalachian folk music and Bluegrass music are both traditional forms, showing Kentucky’s diverse heritage. Appalachian music mixes African and European forms, while Bluegrass music is particularly inspired by Scotch-Irish immigrants as well as American Blues and Jazz.