 Her story cycle "Heartwood", designed for literacy students, was published in 1998, by the University Press of Kentucky.Finney took a leave from the University of Kentucky in 1999 to hold the Goode Chair in the Humanities at Berea College (founded in 1855), the first interracial and coeducational college in the South.After returning to the English Department at University of Kentucky, Finney's third book of poetry, "The World is Round", was published by Inner Light Publishing in 2003.