February 08, 2005
Writers in the Library Features Authors from Knoxville Bound
Authors from the new Knoxville Bound anthology will read at Writers in the Library on Monday, February 21 at 7 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.
Just over a year ago, Knoxville author Judy Loest heard a story on NPR about French Quarter Fiction, a new anthology made up entirely of stories set in New Orleans.
Although Knoxville is much smaller, not as infamous, and not as old, Loest thought, "We can do that, too." Soon, a call for submissions went out and the proverbial ball started rolling.
Loest, along with Cumberland Avenue Revisited author Jack Rentfro and a collection of Knoxville Writers' Guild volunteers, sifted through hundreds of submissions. The result is a hefty but elegantly designed volume that succeeds in wrapping its literary arms around a city.
To some contributors, Knoxville is a big, dangerous city, a bewildering Gomorrah of panhandlers, drug dealers, cross-dressers. To others, it's all interstate exits and chain stores; or a slow-paced place to encounter quaint country folk. "Whatever one’s orientation, Knoxville makes people think, and also has an alarming tendency to make them write," Loest said.
The anthology is comprised of pieces by both noted and famous authors as well as talented local writers. The book appropriately begins with a snippet of Cormac McCarthy’s Suttree, followed by the definitive Knoxville vignette, James Agee’s "Knoxville: Summer 1915." Noted poet Nikki Giovanni describes life at "400 Mulvaney Street." Author and LSU professor David Madden provides one of his early stories, a Cherokee Boulevard motorcycle-and-girl fantasy called "A Piece of the Sky."
Authors scheduled to read at the Feb. 21 event are Amy Billone, Marilyn Kallet, RB Morris, Deb Scaperoth, and Art Smith.
Amy Billone received her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Princeton University in 2001. In 1993 she won an Academy of American Poets award. She currently teaches English at The University of Tennessee and is completing a book of poetry entitled This Clear.
Marilyn Kallet directed the creative writing program at UT for seventeen years (1986-2003); she now holds the Hodges Chair for Distinguished Teaching in English. The author of nine books, her most recent publication, Circe, After Hours, was published in January 2005.
RB Morris is currently the UT Libraries’ Writer-in-Residence. He has published two volumes of poetry, The Man Upstairs (1998) and Littoral Zone (2004). His CDs include Take That Ride, Knoxville Sessions, and Zeke and the Wheel.
Deborah Scaperoth is currently working on a Ph.D. in English at the University of Tennessee. Her work has appeared in such journals as Spring Street, The Phoenix, New Millennium Writings, and Yemassee.
Art Smith is a Professor of English at the University of Tennessee. His poems have appeared in numerous journals including The Nation, The New Yorker, Poetry, The Southern Review, and North American Review.
The Writers in the Library series is sponsored by the University of Tennessee Libraries and the Creative Writing Program of the UT English Department. For further information, please contact Jo Anne Deeken, Head of Technical Services, UT Libraries, at 974-6905 or deeken@aztec.lib.utk.edu, or R.B. Morris, Writer in Residence, UT Libraries, at 974-3004 or rbmorris@utk.edu.
Posted by Laura Purcell at 04:34 PM in Writers in the Library