The Tenth Annual Rose Glen Literary Festival

The Tenth Annual Rose Glen Literary Festival presents the “write” stuff scheduled Saturday, February 23, 2019 from 9 am – 4 pm. This Smoky Mountain event is a must for all literature lovers. The Rose Glen Literary Festival, celebrating a decade of the “write” stuff, welcomes back the event’s first keynote speaker Stephen Lyn Bales who will discuss highlights of past festivals. Bale, a contributor to both the Smithsonian Magazine and Tennessee Conservation Magazine, is a regular speaker at Wilderness Wildlife Week in Pigeon Forge. His published works also include Natural Histories and Ghost Birds: Jim Tanner and the Quest for the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker, 1935-1941.

This year’s festival lineup features a variety of successful and entertaining writers that includes luncheon keynote speaker Robert Beatty, author of the New York Times best-selling Serafina series, an eerie thriller that features a strange young woman who is a secret resident in the basement of the fabulous Biltmore House. Serafina and the Black Cloak spent more than 60 weeks on the Time’s best seller list and was also the recipient of the 2016 Pat Conroy Southern Book Prize. His second book in the series, which has proved popular with both young readers and adults, Serafina and the Twisted Staff, hit number one on the Times’ best seller list the week of its launch and earned a starred review from Kirkus Reviews.

His latest work, Willa of the Wood, introduces a young girl who possesses magical powers and lives in the forests of the Great Smoky Mountains. Now a full-time writer Beatty, who lives in Asheville, was one of the early pioneers of cloud computing, the founder/CEO of Plex Systems, and co-founder of Beatty Robotics and chairman/CEO of Narrative Magazine.

Terry Roberts’s debut novel, A Short Time to Stay Here, won the Willie Morris Award for Southern fiction, and his second novel, That Bright Land, won the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award and the James Till Award for writing about the Appalachian South. Roberts will discuss his latest novel, The Holy Ghost Speakeasy and Revival.

Bill Carey is a columnist for Tennessee Magazine and founder of Tennessee History for Kids, a non-profit organization that assists educators who teach social studies and Tennessee history in improving their core curriculum. Carey’s book, Fortunes, Fiddles and Fried Chicken: A Nashville Business History is ranked among the best Nashville history books of all time. His latest book, Runaways, Coffles and Fancy Girls, a History of Slavery in Tennessee, explores the humanitarian tragedy of slavery. Carey grew up in Huntsville, Alabama, spent five years in the Navy and has resided in Nashville since 1962.

Caitlin Hamilton Summie, a veteran Book publicist and marketing director, will walk writers through the basics of book publicity. A former marketing director of MacMurray & Beck and of Blue Hen Books/Penguin Putnam, Summie, during the course of her career, has help launch numerous authors, and published both short stories and poems. Her short story collection, To Lay to Rest Our Ghosts, earned excellent reviews nationwide and took Silver in the Foreword INDIES Book of the Year.

Marilyn Kallet is the author of 18 books, including The Love That Moves Me and Packing Light: New and Selected Poems. She is Professor Emerita at the University of Tennessee, where she taught for 37 years. Kallet is the Poet Laureate of Knoxville, Tennessee.

Smoky Mountain hikes, mountain lore, disaster and mayhem are on the agenda during the GSMA Panel Discussions emceed by Sam Venable. Venable, a semi-retired humor columnist for the Knoxville News-Sentimental and winner of numerous writing awards, is the author of ten books. His newest collection is Someday I May find Honest Work, a newspaper Humorist’s Life. Venable’s lively commentary will offer entertaining and uncommon perspectives to common experiences. Panelists include Ben Anderson, author of Smokies Chronicle: A Year of Hiking in Smokey Mountains National Park. Anderson, life-long devotee of the Smokies, is a former media relations director at Warren Wilson College and an assistant professor of Mass Communications at Florida Southern College, and has also worked on the staffs of The Asheville Times, the Atlanta Journal and other newspapers. A backcountry volunteer for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park for more than 20 years, Anderson currently provides marketing and public relations work for the Grove Arcade Public Market Foundation in Asheville.

David Brill, an adjunct instructor at the University of Tennessee’s School of Journalism, who has spent decades writing about the Smokies, will provide an entertaining and informative insight based on his book, Into the Mist: Tales of Death and Disaster, Mishaps and Misdeeds, Misfortune and Mayhem in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Courteney Lix’s book, No Place for the Weary Kind: Women of the Smokies, offers insight into the lives of 19 women of substance with strong ties to the Smokey Mountain region. A regular contributor to Smokies Life Magazine, Lix’s writing awards include the Ferris Prize for Journalism from Princeton University as well as other prestigious recognitions.

Featured speaker Bill Landry was the voice, host, narrator, and co-producer of The

Heartland Series which aired on WBIR-TV for more than 30 years. The series won Landry two Emmy Awards for directing as well as the Education in Appalachia Award from Carson-Newman University. His latest book is entitled When Tennessee was the West.

Additional authors will be available to sign copies of their works. All activities are free to the public except the luncheon which costs $20 per person. For luncheon reservations contact the Sevierville Chamber of Commerce at 865-453-6411 or email cmcmahan@scoc.org.

Make your plans to join us for the festival at Sevierville Convention Center, 202 Gists Creed Road, Sevierville Tennessee 37876.

Check out HeySmokies.com for lodging, dining and other entertaining venues during the Festival.

 Schedule

9:15 – 9:45 a.m.            – Meeting Room D – Stephen Lyles

10 a.m.-10:45 a.m.      – Meeting Rom B – Caitlin Hamilton Summie

10 a.m. -10:45 a.m.     – Meeting Room C – Bill Carey

10 a.m. – 10:45 a.m.    – Banquet Hall A – Panel Discussion featuring Ben Anderson, David

                                                Brill and Courtney Lix.

11 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.      – Meeting Room B – Marilyn Kallet

11 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.      – Meeting Room D – Jack Neely

11 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.       – Banquet Hall A – Terry Roberts

12 a.m. – 2 p.m.             – Banquet Hall B & C – Keynote Speaker – Robert Beatty

2 p.m. –   2:45 p.m.      – Banquet Hall A – Bill Landry