Since 1986, Friends has brought authors, poets, musicians, and filmmakers to Knoxville to inspire, inform, and entertain. Those appearing since 2013 include the following:
2023
February 28: Ashley York and Elaine McMillion Sheldon in conversation during the 2023 Wilma Dykeman Stokely Memorial Lecture
2022
May 6: Adrian Trigiani
May 3: Kathleen Dean Moore, a virtual conversation with WUOT’s Chrissy Keuper during the 2022 Wilma Dykeman Stokely Memorial Lecture
2021
March 9: Wiley Cash and Frank X. Walker, a virtual presentation of the 2021 Wilma Dykeman Stokely Memorial Lecture
2020
February 25: Erik Larson
Feruary 11: Michael W. Twitty, 2020 Wilma Dykeman Stokely Memorial Lecture
2019
May 21: Rick Bragg
April 8: Barbara Brown Taylor in conversation with Dr. William Pender, senior pastor of First Presbyterian Church
March 14: Silas House, 2019 Wilma Dykeman Stokely Memorial Lecture
February 7: Jessica Wilkerson and Ginny Savage Ayers
2018
August 7: Vince Vawter
July 8: Jon Meacham in conversation with Senator Lamar Alexander
April 5: Nikki Giovanni, 2018 Wilma Dykeman Stokely Memorial Lecture
March 8: Elaine Weiss
2017
November 12: Julia Watts, James E. Cherry, Mahayla Smith, Melanie Haws, Tom Ray, David Hunter, and Charles Dodd White, speaking about Unbroken Circle: Stories of Cultural Diversity in the South
October 10: Sharyn McCrumb
October 5: Denise Kiernan
September 19: Kerri Maniscalco
May 16: Nathaniel Philbrick
April 9: Anne Lamott
March 23: Amy Greene, 2017 Wilma Dykeman Stokely Memorial Lecture
2016
September 11: Jim and Dykeman Stokely, sons of the late Wilma Dykeman Stokely, speaking about her posthumous memoir, Family of Earth: A Southern Mountain Childhood
August 4: Dan Zak
May 25: Sharyn McCrumb
April 7: Robert Morgan, 2016 Wilma Dykeman Stokely Memorial Lecture
March 22: Erik Larson
2015
June 2: Steve Inskeep
March 12: Dom Flemons, 2015 Wilma Dykeman Stokely Memorial Lecture
2014
October 19: Vince Vawter
October 9: Sharyn McCrumb
September 23: Robert Reich, Fifth Annual Anne Mayhew Distinguished Honors Lecture at the University of Tennessee
April 9: Amanda Ripley
March 4: Ron Rash, 2014 Wilma Dykeman Stokely Memorial Lecture
2013
November 2: Elizabeth Gilbert
September 25: Abraham Verghese, Fourth Annual Anne Mayhew Distinguished Honors Lecture at the University of Tennessee
May 21: Denise Kiernan
May 19: Rick Atkinson
February 18: Jon Meacham
These events were made possible by our many community friendships:
Knox County Public Library
Knox County Public Library Foundation
University of Tennessee Libraries
John C. Hodges Society of UT Libraries
Union Ave Books
WUOT
East Tennessee History Center
East Tennessee Historical Society
Center for Children’s and Young Adult Literature (CCYAL)
First Presbyterian Church
Tennessee Theatre
Bijou Theatre
Knoxville Museum of Art
The Press Room
Keurig Green Mountain
Knox Education Foundation