Brett Ratliff is a 2022 United States Artists Fellow in Traditional Arts. Born and raised in Van Lear, Kentucky, Ratliff has spent his career as a community arts organizer in East Kentucky where in 2006 he helped found Kentucky Traditional Arts, a nonprofit supporting infrastructure for the practice of folk and traditional arts. Ratliff also teaches and performs traditional Appalachian musical styles and repertoire both at home and abroad, and has contributed to more than a dozen recordings, including for Smithsonian Folkways, June Appal Recordings, The Kentucky Center for Traditional Music and The Oxford American.