AGT Monthly Meeting for October 2025

 The Authors Guild of Tennessee held its monthly meeting on Thursday, October 2, 2025, at Faith Lutheran Church in Farragut from 10:30 to noon.

 The following members were present:

Bill Barbour, Steven Cornelius, Gayle Curtin, Laura Derr, Carmen Flores, John Forcum, Leoma Gilley, Jim Hartsell, Wes Hibbert, David Johnston, Jim Johnston, Ernie Lancaster, Sean Mitchell, Jerry Morton, Cheryl Peyton, Nancy Pressley, Ron Pressley, Chuck Roseberry, Kit Sexton, Art Stewart, Becky Tucker, and Jeri Weems.

Guests:  JoAnn Cornelius and Jack Retterer

Jack has written a book of poems with photographs. He taught fine art for years at UT. He will be going through the application process.

Welcome – Cheryl.  Steven Cornelius will take over from Laura Derr as Library Chair in January. Our program changed as Angela Crabtree came to our meeting. She is the creative writing teacher at Lenoir City High School.

Minutes – September minutes approved online without correction.

Treasurer’s Report – Bill

Beginning Cash Balance	$        2,864
Ending Cash Balance	$        3,241
Less:	$        (822)	Writing Competition
	$        (584)	Outstanding checks
Net Cash Available	$       1,834
Income
Trade Show Boothes	$           329
Book Sales	$              45
Membership Dues	$             90
School Writing Competition	$              46
Expenses
Trade Show Fees	$           470
Author payments	$              34
Speaker lunch	$              25
Storage Rental	$             38

 

New Books – Cheryl and David Johnston

Cheryl has a new book, “What Did You Say?” It is about dialects of American English.

David Johnson has recently published More Poems & Other Musings from Walden Ridge.

 Reports by Committee Chairs

Storage facility – Cheryl advises that the Extra Space storage facility on Dutchtown Road is increasing our monthly rate from $35 to $65. Effective October 26. We will be moving our festival equipment to Prime Storage, 11775 Snyder Road (near Campbell Station Road), about 10 minutes away from Faith Lutheran. The rate is $23 or $24, and no separate insurance. If you need tents, bags, tables, etc. for the month, then collect those items before or after the monthly meetings.

Fairs and Festivals – Nancy reported that today is the last chance to sign up for the Etowah Fall Festival. The cost is $17. It is well-attended with lots to do for all ages.

There is one spot for $50 at the Christmas Fair at the Expo Center, Nov 7, 2:00 – 8:00, Saturday, Nov 8, 10:00-6:00, and Sunday, Nov 9, 10:00-5:00.

Next year, the Dayton Strawberry Festival will be held on May 4-9. In January, they open it up for vendors, and spaces go quickly, so let Nancy know if you are interested. She will not book a festival unless there are at least three people committed to attending.

Once you have committed to attend a festival, please pay the fee promptly. If, for some reason you cannot go, then either offer or sell the space to someone else in the Guild. That will be a transaction between you and the other person, not through the Guild.

Program 

 Our speaker, Angela Crabtree, teaches creative writing at Lenoir City High School. She is the teacher we have connected with for the writing contest. When she took over the Creative Writing course, she wanted to make the class more accessible to all students. It counts as an academic elective. She built it from the ground up, and this year has 63 students in two classes.

More than 25 students have learning disabilities. 17 of them are Spanish-speaking with very little English language. She uses a translator to make the class more accessible. Her job is not to point out weaknesses, but to build what they do well. It is a class that challenges students where they are. She must change her curriculum every semester so students can take the class more than once. This year, they are doing theme-based writing.

Some themes:

• Good versus evil using art like “St. George and the Dragon,” and movies that inspire ideas. Together, the class found redemptive arcs in short films and created their own art.
• The power of love, the search for truth are other themes. She uses poetry, true stories, and films to look for themes.
• After Fall break, they will look at the beauty of nature and the consequences of greed.

She works with other departments, such as interacting with the art teacher. Art pieces used in a show were brought to the creative writing class, where the students wrote stories about the artwork. At the show, both the art and the stories were on display. She is also encouraging script writing and graphic novels. The class focuses more on content than grammatical details. The students are encouraged to choose styles of writing, topics, and other ideas that interest them. Then Angela tries to include those in her teaching.

In response to a question, she indicated she uses AI in a very positive way and is very transparent about it. She has created an AI Bot for every assignment. At the end of the semester, the students create and design their own books.

Most of us wished we had a wonderful teacher like Angela Crabtree.

Adjournment

Meeting adjourned at 12:05. Our next meeting will be on November 6, 2025, at Faith Lutheran Church.

Respectfully submitted,

Leoma Gilley, AGT Secretary