Heart in the Right Place, a comic memoir by East Tennessee author Carolyn Jourdan, was selected as a book of the year by Book Sense and the Literary Guild. Jourdan’s story about the transition from working as a U.S. Senate lawyer to working as a receptionist for her dad was the first ever ‘book of the month’ for Family Circle Magazine and has also won a prize from Elle magazine. Read more...
The Library of Virginia has announced that Sharyn McCrumb has been named one of Virginia's eight Women of History for 2008. This honor, designed to recognize and honor the achievements of women who have made important contributions to Virginia and America, both past and present, is celebrated at a reception in Richmond on March 27th at the Library of Virginia, 800 E. Broad Street. Sharyn McCrumb is being recognized for her achievements in literature as a New York Times best-selling Appalachian writer, who won the 2006 Library of Virginia People’s Choice Award and the AWA Book of the Year Award for her NASCAR-themed novel St. Dale.
Southern Living features Jo Carson and photographs of Harlan County's play Higher Ground in the Tennessee section of the January issue.
Dr. Oliver Agee, well-known Blount County physician and cousin of James Agee, passed away at age 85 at his home December 15. His daughter, Dr. Annabel Agee, is collecting remembrances from friends of her father. If you would like to share your memories, email your stories to rememberingoliveragee@yahoo.com.
Jim Tomlinson, author of Things Kept, Things Left Behind, has been awarded a National Endowment for the Arts grant. Tomlinson won the $25,000 Creative Writing Fellowship for Prose. Tomlinson lives in Berea, Kentucky, and was one of seven Kentuckians to receive the grant.
Cormac McCarthy’s The Sunset Limited will be showing at the Black Box in Knoxville, presented by the Actors Co-op. Performances are February 22, 23, 27, 28, 29, and March 1, all at 8 PM. For advanced tickets, visit www.knoxtix.com.
The Kansas City Star has announced their 100 Noteworthy Books of 2007 list, and two works by regional authors are featured prominently on the list. The Movable Nest: A Mother/Daughter Companion, edited by Kathryn Stripling Byer and Marilyn Kallet, was recognize as one of the year’s best anthologies. Robert Morgan’s Boone: A Biography, which looks at the life of Daniel Boone, has also been named on The Star’s Noteworthy Books list.
Pulitzer Prize-winning US author, Cormac McCarthy has won the UK's oldest literary award, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction, awarded by the University of Edinburgh. The Road, McCarthy's tale of a father and son in a post-apocalyptic America, was named the best novel of the year. He wins £10,000, as does Byron Rogers, who won in the biography category for his book about Welsh poet R.S. Thomas. Past winners include D.H. Lawrence and E.M. Forster.
Randy Lowens of Berea, Kentucky has been honored with the Tacenda Literary Award, for the Best Short Story of 2007 illuminating social injustice. Tacenda Literary Magazine, published by WilloTrees Press, is an online publication dedicated to creative writing on crime and punishment. Read more.
Tennessee author and Knoxville Writer’s Guild member, Alex Gabbard, has won Writer's Digest magazine’s 2007 competition for Mainstream Literary Fiction for his historical fiction novel, Gaspee. Gabbard’s novel won the competition among thousands of entries and three rounds of judging. To find out more about the novel, visit alexgabbard.com.