The Knoxville Writers' Guild will also highlight former officers and board members in honor of the 10-year anniversary of the Guild's creation. 

November:  The November 7 meeting of the Knoxville Writers' Guild will feature Irene Zabytko, University of Tennessee Visiting Novelist. Her book, The Sky Unwashed, is about the devastating Russian nuclear accident at Chernobyl. 

The program begins at 7 p.m. at the Laurel Theatre, 16th St. at Laurel Ave. The public is invited. Refreshments will be served.
October:2001 Peter Taylor Prize winner, A.G. Harmon, will read from his winning novel A House All Stilled.  A two-time nominee for The Pushcart Prize, he was the 1994 recipient of The Milton Center
Fellowship for the Novel, and also received The Thomas Williams Short Story Award. His fiction, essays, and articles have appeared in numerous publications, including Image and Logos. He teaches Shakespeare, Law and Literature, Jurisprudence, and Writing at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Note:This program will take place October 10 instead of October 3.

September:Ted Olson will read selections from two of his books, So Far: Poems ( Creeker Press, 1994) and Blue Ridge Folklife (University Press of Mississippi, 1998). He also will read some of his writings that have been published in various periodicals and journals. All of these selections will reflect Olson's efforts to understand two sometimes parallel, sometimes linked themes: the inter-relationships between people and nature and between the contemporay individual and cultural history.

Olson is currently serving as interim director of the Center for Appalachian Studies and Services at East Tennessee State University. He recently edited a book of poetry by James Still that has received the Book of the Year Award for 2002 from the Appalachian Writers Association.
August: Catherine Landis, local author of Sometimes There's Pie , released in April by St. Martin's Press, will read from her work at the August 1 meeting of the Knoxville Writers' Guild and answer questions about her personal journey in writing. Cathy was the first winner of the annual Leslie Garrett short story competition sponsored by the Guild. Judges of the contest that year saw real promise in her work. She went on to write more short stories and then, three years ago, to begin work on a novel that emerged as Sometimes There's Pie. The book is already in its second printing, and Cathy is now working on a second novel to fulfill her two-book contract with St. Martin's.

Her reviews have been consistently excellent. Publishers Weekly says, "Landis does a fine job of rendering these memorable characters, two iconoclasts on a quest to live big until they die." Booklist says, "Landis's debut novel reads like a tougher version of Fannie Flagg; fans of southern literature will surely appreciate this wry and clear-eyed tribute to the power of friendship." Library Journal says,"This is a new writer worth watching." 

July: Open Mike! The July meeting of the Knoxville Writers' Guild will be held on the second Thursday of the month instead of the first, because of the Independence Day holiday. The date is July 11.

This month's meeting features the Guild's annual Open Mike. The public is invited to come hear a mix of humor, drama and soul as local writers read their recent poems, stories and essays. The meeting will be at at 7 p.m. at the Laurel Theatre, 16th and Laurel, near the UT campus. Refreshments will be served. A $1 donation is suggested.
June:  Frank Jamison will read from his book Marginal Notes: Poems, at the June 6 meeting of the Knoxville Writers' Guild.  The title of his collection refers to his habit of jotting down notes wherever and whenever an inspiration strikes his imagaination.  The 46 poems in the Knoxvillian's book represent a lifetime of thoughts, images, and experiences.  Poet George Scarborough says of Jamison's work: "Frank Jamison attempts to break through the veil that masks the answers all men are seeking.  These first poems are, above all, honest.  In addition, they are often beautiful.  Controlling the whole collection is the metaphor of the sack, in which we carry our story with us, wherever we go, whoever we are.  I find it compelling.  It resonates, as all good writing should."

May: The Knoxville Writers’ Guild will feature Metro Pulse editor Jesse Fox Mayshark, along with Metro Pulse entertainment editor Adrienne Martini, at the May meeting.  Jesse Fox Mayshark – a Californian by birth, a Yankee by upbringing and a Tennessean by accident – came to Knoxville in 1994. He worked for The Mountain Press in Sevierville and the Knoxville News-Sentinel before joining Metro Pulse as senior editor in 1997. He became editor in 2000. He has described the mission of Metro Pulse as “supporting good music, good beer, and inclusive government.”

Mayshark and Martini will address “the difference in writing and reporting” at the KWG meeting, which will be at the Laurel Theatre, corner of 16th and Laurel, on Thursday, May 2, at 7 p.m. The public is invited; refreshements are provided. A $1.00 donation is suggested.

April:  Adam Johnson, author of his first novel, Emporium (to be published by Viking Press in 2002) will read from his novel and stories at the April 4 meeting.  A Stegner Fellow and teacher at Stanford University, Johnson has also published stories in Esquire, Paris Review, and Harper's.

March:  The March program of the Knoxville Writers' Guild will feature fiction writer Mike Magnuson. Mike is the author of The Right Man for the Job (Harper Collins, 1997), and The Fire Gospels (Harper Flamingo, 1998) and a new autobiography entitled Lummox (Harper Collins, 2001). He received his MFA in fiction writing from the University of Florida, where he studied with Padgett Powell, and currently teaches in the Creative Writing Program at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. 

February:  In conjunction with the University of Tennessee Visiting Writers Series, Meg Kearney will read from her debut volume of poetry, An Unkindness of Ravens. Kearney, assistant director of the National Book Foundation, was recipient of the New York Times Fellowship, the Alice M. Sellers Academy of American Poets Award in 1998 and the Geraldine Griffin Moore Award in Creative Writing in 1997.  In 2001 she received an artist's fellowship from the NY Foundation for the Arts.  Her poetry has been published in or is forthcoming from Black Warrior Reiew, Double Take, Passages North, and Tar River Poetry.

January: Happy New Year!

Join us for the Guild's first meeting of the new year! 

The January program of the Knoxville Writers' Guild celebrates Robert Burns Night .  Winners of the Burns Poetry Award/Terry Semple Memorial Contest will read their winning poems on the subject of heritage, and other Scottish treats will be featured.  Those attending the meeting will be able to purchase tickets to the annual Robert Burns Night celebration held on January 26, 2002.  This event is held worldwide each January to mark the birth of Robert Burns.

The Knoxville Writers' Guild will meet at 7 p.m. on Thursday, January 3, at the Laurel Theater, 16th and Laurel, off Cumberland Avenue.  The public is invited.  A $1 donation is requested. 

Archive of program speakers, 1998 to present