Rose Glen Literary Festival in Sevierville on February 27th! It’s a Celebration of Regional Books and Authors!
Rose Glen Literary Festival in Sevierville features lectures, workshops and book signings by authors from the Smoky Mountain and Appalachian region.
Sevierville Convention Center
Saturday, February 27, 2016
9:00 am – 3:00 pm
All programs at the festival are free with the exception of the Luncheon ($20 per person); tickets can be purchased through the Sevierville Chamber of Commerce.
Kid’s Corner will offer children’s activities from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon. Author Joe Tennis will be featured at Kid’s Corner. Tennis’ books include the children’s (age 8-14) novel Finding Franklin: Mystery of the Lost State of Franklin along with ghost-tales The Marble and Hants of Virginia Blue Ridge Highlands. He’s a writer for Blue Ridge Country Magazine and columnist for the Bristol Herald Courier.
Luncheon Keynote Speaker is Cory MacLauchlin, author of Butterfly in the Typewriter, a biography of author John Kennedy Toole who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1981 for A Confederacy of Dunces. A graduate of University of Virginia, MacLauchlin currently teaches American Literature, Southern Literature and Writing and Research at Germanna Community College in Fredricksburg. MacLauchlin developed a course on New Orleans history and culture at Christopher New Port University and led student groups on rebuilding efforts in the city after Hurricane Katrina. In his spare time, MacLauchlin also teaches courses at a state prison. He believes in the ability of writing to rehabilitate lives.
Other Featured Books and Authors at the 2016 Rose Glen Literary Festival
- Fresh Water from Old Wells by Cindy Henry McMahon. With a tape recorder and map, McMahon embarked on a mission to learn about her family’s history in the South during the turbulent times of the 1960’s and ’70s. Her research led to her understanding of how the events of the Civil Rights Movement in Georgia shaped her father whose bitterness and violence led to his absence in her life. McMahon’s cathartic journey allows her to release her own pent-up anger and resentment.
- Bearwallow: A Personal History of a Mountain Homeland (2014) by Jeremy B. Jones. A native of southern Appalachia, Jones teaches creative writing at Western Carolina University. Jones’ essays have been named Notable in Best American Essays in Oxford American, Brevity, and Crab Orchard Review.
- How to Tawlk and Rite Good: A guide to the language of Southern Appalachia by Sam Venable. Venable is the winner of more than three dozen national and regional writing awards and is the author of 12 books. With legions of regional fans, his humorous take on life in Southern Appalachia will certainly tickle your funnybone.
- As Sweet as It’s Going to Get by Dawn Coppock. With a career as an adoption attorney, Coppock has spent much of her life as an advocate for children. Her book “Coppock on Tennessee Adoption Law” is an essentail reference for lawyers across the state. Recently, Coppock has been an advocate for the end to mountain top removal coal mining in Tennessee. You can hear her poetry regularly on WDVX’s program “Tennessee Shines.” As a proponent for Southern food, Coppock is also an award-winning pie maker.
- Bear in the Backseat: Adventures of a Wildlife Ranger by Kim Delozier. This former long-time park ranger with Great Smoky Mountains National Park relives his adventurs dealing with hormonally-crazed elk, homicidal wild boars, befuddled black bears and the nine million tourists that visit the national park each year.
- Ghost Birds: Jim Tanner and the Quest for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker by Stephen Lyn Bales. Nature writer, photographer, illustrator, senior naturalist at Ijams Nature Center in Knoxville, and Gatlinburg native shares one man’s quest for this illusive bird.
