Knoxville Writers' Guild - Members Write & Shine!

Guild Members Write & Shine!

Frank Jamison has recently published his poetry: "Chattanooga Freight" in The Atlanta Review, "Last Tango" in Xanadu, and "Ten Days to Solstice" in Fulcrum. Other recent good news for Frank: "Woman Backlit and Framed in a Doorway" in Paper Street, Volume IV, Number 2, 2007; "Whole Cloth" in South Carolina Review Volume 39, Number 2, Spring 2007; "Journal Entry: New Year's Eve" in Riversedge, Volume 20, Number 1, 2007.

Tennessee author and Knoxville Writer’s Guild member, Alex Gabbard, wins Writer's Digest competition. Gabbard's novel Gaspee, has won the 2007 competition for Mainstream Literary Fiction among thousands of entries and three rounds of judging. Gaspee is the author's 17th book and third Book of the Year recipient. Visit his website: www.alexgabbard.com for more information.

Carole Anne Borges has recently published "Knoxville Soup Kitchen" in the online r.kv.r.y quarterly literary journal, vol. 2, no. iii, winter/spring 2007. To read, visit: http://ninetymeetingsinninetydays.com/Knoxville

Ron Miller has recently published his new book, Escape from the Happy Cannibal, about his travels to over 80 countries in the world. See the review from the UT Beacon: http://dailybeacon.utk.edu/showarticle.php?articleid=50899

Alex Gabbard has a new book out: Gaspee and recently received notice of three Honorable Mentions awarded in the 75th annual Writer's Digest competition that drew about 19,000 entries. The categories were (1) Rhyming Poem - "Rock 'n' Roll Blues"; (2) Memoirs/Personal Essay - "Mediterranean Sunrise"; (3) Feature Article - "In the Hall of the Mountain King". For more information, visit: www.alexgabbard.com.

Pamela Schoenewaldt's short story "The Ice Age in New Jersey" won 2nd prize and publication for Literal Latte's Fiction Competition.

Ron Miller has just published his first book Escape From The Happy Cannibal which is a travel autobiography that uses the venue of global travel to discuss culture, religion, and spirituality. Miller will be selling books at the Great American Meatout at Market Square on Saturday March 18. He will also have a book signing at the Hastings book store in Maryville from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday March 25. Visit RonTravel.com.

Under One Flag: A Year at Rohwer, co-written by Pam Strickland and Liz Parkhurst has been nominated for 2006 Historic Preservation Book Prize from the Center for Historic Preservation at The University of Mary Washington. The winner will be announced the first week in May. Under One Flag: A Year at Rohwer is historical fiction for upper elementary ages about World War II Japanese internment camps in the Arkansas Delta. (August House Publishing, March 2005)

S.L. Baer was the December featured author at the LeConte Book Club. He will be signing his novel, Appalachian Spring, at Lemuria Books, Jackson, Mississippi, on March 17.

Pamela Schoenewaldt's story "Threads on the Mountain,” set in 19th Century Abruzzo, appears in Fiction Attic. To read, go to www.fictionattic.com and click on Current Issue.

Board member Art Stewart’s new book, Bushido uses the Japanese concept of Bushido as inspiration for his latest collection of essays and poems. The book focuses on two of the seven Bushido virtues – Rei (respect) and Makoto (truth and sincerity) and is available from the author or at Knoxville’s fine independent bookstore (Carpe Librum) or on-line from the publisher, Celtic Cat Publishing, (www.celticcatpublishing.com). Art also will talk about the concept of Bushido and read from his work on Sunday, October 23, at 2 p.m. at Carpe Librum. Mark your calendar and visit with the author!

Judy Di Gregorio has won second place in the Humorous Poem category for a poem called "First Class". This is the seventh award Di Gregorio has won from ByLine Magazine in one of their humor categories.

Pamela Schoenewaldt’s short story, “The Blessed Virgin, Here and Gone,” won second place in The Writers Place short story competition. Copies of her story will be sent to film production companies, agents and managers. The competition also requested a “logline” or brief plot description.

Pamela’s logline was: “An American woman living in Southern Italy is informed that the Blessed Virgin has appeared in the annoying mildew on her bathroom wall. Now Helen’s apartment is a local shrine and the town demands yet more miracles from ‘L’Americana’.”

For information about upcoming competitions sponsored by The Writers Place, see http://www.thewritersplace.org

Glenn Bernstein has published his first novel Portraits Unpainted.

Scott Holstad's 15th book of poetry Cells has just been published! At over 200 pages, it is available at select bookstores, and online through venues like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books A Million, Target, and more. Read his interview in the Tennessee Alumnus magazine (summer 2005).

Look for Julia Lieber's second mystery novel on bookstore shelves in June. The Blue Scorpion (Alyson) is her follow-up novel to There Came Two Angels, released last year. Lieber is the mystery pen name of Guild member and former president Julie Auer.

Don Williams, New-Sentinel columnist, editor of New Millennium Writings and a Knoxville freelance journalist, has just published a new book: Heroes, Sheroes and Zeroes: The Best Writings About People. Included in the book are accounts of famous and infamous people: Elvis, Jim Bakker, Joan Baez, Michael Jordan, and more. Most of the pieces are columns collected from the Knoxville News-Sentinel over the years. Especially memorable is Williams' account of Knoxville writer Libba Moore Gray's heroic battle with cancer.

"The Ruins of Paestum" by Pamela Schoenewaldt will be published soon in the Potomac Review. In the story, an American woman travels with her aging father to the ruins of an ancient Greek settlement, where a violent storm overcomes them and shakes their long-established roles. Schoenewaldt says she "got wonderful help on the story from the Guild's Short Story Group."

Scott L. Baer has just published his first book, Appalachian Spring: A Novel, set in the Smokies. Appalachian Spring is an extraordinary novel of merriment, passion and conflict. S.L. Baer tells the gripping story of hikers and backpackers from diverse backgrounds who come together by choice and accident to spend a week in the backcountry of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Details are on his website at www.slbaer.com

Sarah Boyd's story Casey's Jack appears in Penwomanship , an online journal of women's writings.

Adrienne Dessel's poem "Kosher Kitchen," appears in the online magazine Sunspinner.

Marianne Worthington won second place in the annual Tennessee Writers Alliance literary contest for poetry and read her poem at the Southern Festival of Books in October. She has poems forthcoming in The Louisville Review, Birmingham Arts Journal and Journal of Kentucky Studies. In addition to her day job as a faculty member at Cumberland College, she teaches creative writing in the Kentucky Governor’s School for the Arts.

Ronald H. Lands, MD, has won the Tennessee Writers' Association (TWA) fiction award. He read "The Fogs of August" at the 2004 Southern Book Festival.

Judy Loest has won the James Still Award for Poetry (Appalachian Writers Assn, Cumberland College, Williamsburg, KY) for poem titled “Knoxville, Summer: 2003.” For more winners of the Appalachian Writers Association Contests, go to: http://www.etsu.edu/english/judaculla/awa_contests.htm

Julie Auer, former president of the Guild, has published her first novel: There Came Two Angels. Written under her nom de plume of Julia Lieber, this murder mystery is available at Borders and Books A Million book stores.

Guild member Jeffrey Higa has a short essay included in the recetly released anthology from Ballantine Books, Aunties: Thirty Five Writers Celebrate Their Other Mother , edited by Ingrid Sturgis. It is a collection of essays on "real" aunties--the good, the bad, and the ugly--not just the loving and doting aunties.

R.B. Morris' new book of prose and poetry, The Littoral Zone, has just been released. The Littoral Zone is a mixture of new and old works, all powerfully steeped in Knoxville lore.

Judy Loes t is one of 7 winners of the Oil of Olay Total Effects Fine Lines Poetry Contest. Co-s ponsored by the Poetry Society of America, the list of judges included renowned poets—Sonia Sanchez, Sapphire, Lee Ann Brown, Marilyn Chin, Sandra Cisneros, Julia Alvarez, and Jill Bialosky. Winners each receive $2,000 and the opportunity to have their poems published in the Poetry in Motion® program, a joint endeavor founded by the Poetry Society of America and MTA New York City Transit in 1992. Read the winning poems here .

Lori Riverstone, is teaching a Kid's U course, offered by the University of Tennessee. Program Title: Journalism 101: Writing for the Media. Meeting Dates: July 12 - July 16 Meeting Time: M-F from 1 PM to 4 PM. Students should register through the University of Tennessee's Professional and Personal Development Department. Contact Jennifer Bennett at 974-2981 or at bennettj@outreach.utk.edu.

Judy DiGregorio recently won an Honorable Mention for a nonfiction essay at the TN Mountain Writers Conference in Oak Ridge. She is also teaching noncredit classes at Roane State and Pellissippi State entitled "From Pen to Publication" aimed at providing beginning writers with appropriate tools and resources. In July, Judy will present a similar workshop for the Appalachian Writers Association in Williamsburg, KY.

Elsin Ann Perry sold a mystery poem to a mystery magazine two weeks ago, and last year a mystery of hers was published in Take-A-Break , an English magazine.

Guild member Doris Ivie, a professor in Natural and Behavioral Sciences at Pellissippi State Technical Community College, has written an article that is published in the February/March 2004 edition of the magazine Bountiful Health: Discovering the Joy of Living Well. The article, “Write for Your Life,” advocates the healing power of journaling. Ivie, who has been journaling since she was 14, writes about the benefits she has received from putting down her thoughts in journals.

Judy Loest publishes again in France Magazine, a UK publication. Her article “Adventures of a Cheeseaholic” will appear in the March 2004 issue available at Borders and Barnes & Noble book stores.

Pamela Schoenewaldt's short story "Fallout" is featured in The Sun Magazine, March 2004 issue 339. Read an excerpt .

Allen Wier is featured in Tennessee Alumnus Magazine , Spring 2004.

Cumberland Avenue Revisited: Four Decades of Music in Knoxville, Tennessee , edited by Jack Rentfro and published by Brian Conley has just hit the shelves in area book stores. Both Rentfro and Conley are Guild members.

Pamela Schoenewaldt's story set in 19th Century Abruzzo, "Threads on the Mountain," which was first published in New Letters , was one of three stories nominated for a National Magazine Award from the American Society of Magazine Editors. The results will be announced sometime soon.

Jeanne McDonald's first novel Water Dreams debuts in mid-September! She has previously co-authored two nonfiction books with her husband Fred Brown: Growing Up Southern: How the South Shapes Its Writers and The Serpent Handlers: Three Families and Their Faith. According to novelist Lee Smith, "An accidental drowning forever changes the middle-aged man who happens to witness it--and affects everyone else in his life like widening circles in the water after a rock has been thrown in. Male and female readers alike will be swept away by this absorbing, grown-up novel, a serious meditation upon chance, fate, love, and responsibility. Like all the best storytellers, Jeanne McDonald knows how to disappear and let the story take over." Scheduled book signings and readings below. McDonald's story " Up the Hill Toward Home " is included in the recently Listen Here: Women Writing in Appalachia (2003)published by University Press of Kentucky and edited by Sandra Ballard and Patricia Hudson.

"They Come to Me" by Pamela Schoenewaldt has appeared in the October 2 literary issue of MetroPulse . The story was originally published in Mediphors , the literary journal of the medical profession. An old man at the end of life, quickly fading, struggles to find peace with the memories of the women he's wro nged.

Judy Loest will have a humorous travel piece on the current anti-French sentiment called "Savoir-Faire" in the November 2003 issue of France Magazine, a UK publication.

Pamela Schoenewaldt 's story "Her First Bulgarian Occupation" is available on-line through the Square Lake website: www.squarelake.com, issue number three.

Ebbing and Flowing Springs by Jeff Daniel Marion and published by Celtic Cat Publishing has won the following awards. This book, Marion's 7th full-length collection, offers the author's work over the period 1976-2001 and includes new poems and previously uncollected stories and essays.

Ebbing and Flowing Springs is winner of the 2003 Appalachian Writers Association Book of the Year Award.

Independent Publisher Book Award for Poetry 2003 (IPPY) announced Marion's book in his award for excellence in independent publishing.

The book is one of the three finalists for the 2003 Benjamin Franklin Award in the Poetry/Literary Criticism category. Both Jim Johnston, owner of Celtic Cat Publishing, and Jeff Daniel Marion are members of the Guild.

Jeanne McDonald is the 1st place winner in the 2003 Appalachian Fiction Competition sponsored by the Center for Appalachian Studies and Services at East Tennessee State University. Her winning story, "In the Realm of Possibility" will be printed in the December 2003 edition of Now & Then magazine. Charles Frazier, author of Cold Mountain , was the final judge.

Judi DiGregorio has won 1st place in the Virginia Highlands Festival Creative Writing Essay Contest, Abingdon, VA, for her humorous essay entitled "Accessoritus Ioosus."