Authors Guild of Tennessee

Next Meeting

On Thursday, April 3, 2025, the Authors Guild of Tennessee will meet at the Faith Lutheran Church in Farragut from 10:30 a.m. to noon. Our featured speaker will be AGT member Kathy Parr. Her talk will be on Writing Historical Fiction.

Kathy taught writing at the University of Illinois-Chicago where she taught First-Year Composition, Media and Professional Writing, and Grammar. In 2021, she and her husband moved to Tellico Village, where she joined the Authors Guild of Tennessee.

Katherine’s historical novel, Eva of the Nation, arose from her dissertation on Eva O’Doherty, a poetess and essayist for Dublin’s literary newspaper. Eva’s writing denounced colonial practices at the time of the Irish famine, joining the Young Ireland group. Eva met and fell in love with another member of Young Ireland who was sent to prison.

Katherine also published a book on writing, Grammar and Style: Navigating the Bewildering World of Writing. Recently, she published a children’s book about her West Highland Terrier, Charlie Bear. She writes as Katherine Kirby Smith                                                                   (K.K. Smith).

                                                   Slide show at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tgg61GWV_rk

Jeri Weems

featured as an Inspiration on Knoxville Voyager

Knoxville Voyager is an online magazine, part of the LA-based Voyage Group of Magazines. Their stated mission is “to promote mom and pops, artists, creatives, makers, and small businesses.”

AGT member, Jeri Weems, is featured as being an ‘Inspiration’ in the March 27th edition. The article focuses on her work as a volunteer in a farm sanctuary in Michigan ten years ago, where she tended to abused, abandoned, and neglected farm animals. In her work, she discovered how intelligent they are and how capable they are of having strong feelings. Writing as Elizabeth Stiles, Jeri has recently released her book, Safe Haven — Where Hope Lives  that highlights the emotional lives of animals.

Here is the link to the online article: https://knoxvillevoyager.com/interview/daily-inspiration-meet-jeri-weems

Dr. David Page

New Member of AGT Member

David Page holds a Doctorate of Philosophy in Electrical Engineering from the University of Tennessee and works as a research scientist in the Knoxville area. He has also received a Bachelor’s and Master of Science degrees from Tennessee Technological University (TTU).

David is an “engi-nerd” by training and a political junky by birth. David has never held public office, but he has been active in politics since age ten.

In his career, David has a research background in 3D computer vision and is the author or co-author of over 50 refereed technical articles in international journals and conferences with over 2,600 citations. He is an inventor with a patent in 3D holographic displays and has served as a key partner in a technology startup company that unfortunately failed.

David lives in Knoxville, Tennessee, with his wife, Lisa, and their daughter, Grace. “The Art of the Compromise” is David’s first nonfiction book, and Grace likes to tell folks, “My dad has written hundreds of books on a plethora of topics, but this one is the first he has ever finished.”

New Release by Leoma Gilley

In 1989, linguist Leoma Gilley and her colleague Janice moved to Khartoum – the world’s hottest capital – to improve the Shilluk writing system. Linguists have struggled since 1912 to develop an adequate writing system for the Shilluk people of southern Sudan. This language issue helped spark a 21-year civil war, driving many Shilluks to seek refuge in Khartoum, Sudan’s capital. Moving on from her first adventure in Launching into the Unknown, Leoma continues on in Sudan’ s capital, each day bringing a new challenge or celebration, including: bureaucratic red tape, successful workshops, cultural misunderstandings, enjoying unexpected friendships over plates of fuul, swirling dust storms, finding humor in the challenge of keeping electronics sand-free, and blistering heat. Will they convince the Shilluk people to embrace a new spelling system? Can they overcome government restrictions to continue their vital work?

New Release by Art Stewart

A serious-humorous take on those pesky, nasty-tempered insects that can sting you “out the Ying Yang”– and some factual information that might help prevent them from doing that to you.

Art Stewart is an aquatic ecologist, science educator, essayist and poet. In addition to authoring scientific articles and technical reports, his poetry has been published in various anthologies and a dozen different journals, including Eclectic Literary Forum, New Millennium Writings, Lullwater Review, the Journal of the American Medical Association.

                                                  David Johnston

                                                New Member of AGT

David spent most of his professional life as a general manager of Marriott hotels, taking him across the country to live in every regional area of the U.S. except the PNW. In addition to the hotel work, David owned and operated a family lake resort in Minnesota for eight years. The opportunity to live in so many places afforded David the chance to pursue his love of nature. He has spent a lifetime exploring the world of forests and mountain life, both physically and spiritually. Having hiked throughout the U.S. and Europe, David most enjoys time spent in the mountains of East Tennessee.

At home with his wife, Maria, there are many chores associated with country life, ably assisted by their two beagles, Susie and Hank. Hikes on the mountain where they live are a regular pastime and destination trips for big hikes happen once or twice each year.

David is currently working on his certification as a forest therapy coach, looking forward to helping others connect to the wonders of nature.

Creative Writing Contest

Lenoir City High School

First Semester 2024- 2025

 Angela Crabtree, teacher of the junior/senior writing classes at Lenoir City High School has released the first semester winning short stories in the Creative Writing Contest sponsored by the Authors Guild of Tennessee. Ms. Crabtree explains that the students were allowed to submt their favorite short story from those had written in various fiction genres. The students had researched and written about superstitions, zombie apocalypse, modern monsters, as well as historical, comedic, fairytales and folktales.

The first-and second-place winners in Ms. Crabtree’s two classes are linked under this notice.  Three have a dark tone and one is inspirational. All are well-written and worthy of their awards.

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0?ui=2&ik=5bd369cc01&attid=0.1&permmsgid=msg-f:1816091235841622506&th=19340d5b600a41ea&view=att&disp=inline&realattid=f_m3nfzjtw0&zw

Creative Writing Contest

Lenoir City High School

2nd Semester 2023-24

In the second semester of the 2023-4 school year, Angela Crabtree, teacher of the junior/senior writing classes at Lenoir City High School, selected poetry as the literary form for the Creative Writing Contest sponsored by the Authors Guild of Tennessee.

The first- and second-place winners in Ms. Crabtree’s two classes are linked under this notice. Again, the students were not assigned particular subjects but were encouraged to write from their personal experiences and viewpoints. The poems are honest and personal and sometimes reflect harsh realities in each student’s life. They are all well-written and create word pictures of place and time.

The Authors Guild of Tennessee is proud to publish these outstanding literary accomplishments on our website with parental consent for students who are minors.