Past Events
Since 1986, Friends has brought books, authors, and readers together by hosting or co-hosting a variety of events to inspire, inform, and entertain.
2022
In partnership with Union Ave Books, the Friends were pleased to welcome author Adriana Trigiani on May 6, 2022, at the East Tennessee History Center.
Adriana Trigiani is the New York Times bestselling author of twenty books in fiction and non-fiction, which have been published in thirty-eight languages around the world. She is also an award-winning playwright, television writer/producer, and filmmaker. With her newest book, The Good Left Undone, Trigiani returns to her Italian roots in what she calls the most passionate storytelling of her career.
Friends and the John C. Hodges Library Society of the University of Tennessee Libraries hosted environmental philosopher Kathleen Dean Moore in conversation with WUOT’s Chrissy Keuper during a virtual presentation of the 2022 Wilma Dykeman Stokely Memorial Lecture on March 3. Other event sponsors included the Knox County Public Library, Union Ave Books, UT Libraries, and WUOT.
Watch the lecture here: Wilma Dykeman Stokely Memorial Lecture Featuring Kathleen Dean Moore and Chrissy Keuper.
2021
Friends and the Library Society of the University of Tennessee hosted novelist Wiley Cash and poet Frank X Walker for a virtual presentation of the 2021 Wilma Dykeman Stokely Memorial Lecture on March 9. Other sponsors of the event were the Knox County Public Library, Union Ave Books, UT Libraries, and WUOT.
Watch the lecture here.
2020
Friends, Union Ave Books, the Knox County Public Library, and the East Tennessee Historical Society hosted an evening with Erik Larson on February 25. Larson, the author of five national bestsellers, spoke about his newest book, The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz, which was released that day.
On February 11, Friends and the Library Society of the University of Tennessee hosted culinary and cultural historian Michael W. Twitty, who presented the 2020 Wilma Dykeman Stokely Memorial Lecture. Other sponsors were the Knox County Public Library, the Knox County Public Library Foundation, the East Tennessee Historical Society, The Press Room, Union Ave Books, UT Libraries, and WUOT.
Watch the lecture here.
2019
Friends, Union Ave Books, and the Knox County Public Library hosted an evening with Rick Bragg on May 21. Bragg, a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, journalist, and author of two best-selling memoirs and numerous other books, shared stories from his most recent book, The Best Cook in the World: Tales from My Momma’s Southern Table, in a conversation with Ronni Lundy, the author of Victuals. WUOT was also a sponsor of the event.
View photos from this event here.
Listen to the podcast of this event here:
Home Cookin’ with Rick Bragg, May 21, 2019
On April 8, Friends joined hosts First Presbyterian Church and Union Ave Books for an evening with Barbara Brown Taylor, author of Holy Envy: Finding God in the Faith of Others. Taylor, who is a teacher and Episcopal priest, talked about Holy Envy with Dr. William Pender, the church’s senior pastor.
Best-selling author Silas House presented the 2019 Wilma Dykeman Stokely Memorial Lecture on March 14 in the Ann and Steve Bailey Hall of the Knoxville Museum of Art (KMA).
The lecture was hosted by Friends of the Knox County Public Library and the Library Society of the University of Tennessee, and was sponsored by the Knox County Public Library, the Knox County Public Library Foundation, Union Ave Books, KMA, and WUOT.
View photos from this event here.
Watch the lecture here.
Friends joined Union Ave Books to host authors Jessica Wilkerson and Ginny Savage Ayers on February 7 at the East Tennessee History Center for a discussion of social justice movements in Appalachia that were led by women.
The Knox County Public Library and the East Tennessee Historical Society were also partners for this event.
Listen to the podcast of this event here:
Women-Led Social Justice Movements in Appalachia, February 7, 2019
2018
On August 7, Friends and Union Ave Books hosted journalist and author Vince Vawter, who discussed his latest book, Copyboy. The event was held at the East Tennessee History Center.
The Knox County Public Library, the East Tennessee Historical Society, and WUOT were also partners for this event.
Friends joined Union Ave Books to host renowned presidential historian and Tennessee native Jon Meacham on Sunday, July 8, at First Presbyterian Church in downtown Knoxville. Meacham discussed his new book, The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels, with Sen. Lamar Alexander.
The Knox County Public Library, the East Tennessee Historical Society, and WUOT were also partners for this event.
- Listen to excerpts from the event here.
- Listen to WUOT News Director Brandon Hollingsworth’s conversation with Jon Meacham: Historian Jon Meacham’s Search for the ‘Soul’ of the Country
- Read Sandra Clark’s review of this event for KnoxTNToday: Meacham looks for ‘better angels’
- View the photo album from this event here.
On April 5, Friends, the Library Society of the University of Tennessee, the Knox County Public Library, Union Ave Books, and WUOT hosted widely acclaimed poet and Knoxville native Nikki Giovanni, who presented the 2018 Wilma Dykeman Stokely Memorial Lecture.
Please visit the Library Society’s website to view a recording of this event.
On May 23, 2019, the City of Knoxville unveiled a plaque honoring Giovanni’s life and accomplishments. View short videos, a photo album, and local media coverage here.
Friends, the Knox County Public Library, Union Ave Books, the East Tennessee Historical Society, and WUOT hosted award-winning journalist and writer Elaine Weiss on March 8 at the East Tennessee History Center. Weiss spoke about her latest book, The Woman’s Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote.
View the photo album from this event here.
WUOT 91.9 FM: Elaine Weiss on Tennessee’s Role in Women’s Suffrage
Listen to the podcast of the Elaine Weiss event here:
Elaine Weiss, March 8, 2018
2017
At a ceremony on December 20 at Lawson McGhee Library, Maggie Carini, Friends president, presented awards to the winners of the 2017 Kerri Maniscalco Writing Contest for Knox County students in grades 9–12. Kelsey Craighead, 11th grade, Knoxville Catholic High School, won first place. Kathryn White, 11th grade, Hardin Valley Academy, placed second; and Pierce Gentry, 9th grade, Central High School, won third place.
Read their prize-winning stories and view photos and videos from the awards ceremony here.
Friends, the Knox County Public Library, and the East Tennessee Historical Society hosted an afternoon with Julia Watts, co-editor of Unbroken Circle: Stories of Cultural Diversity in the South, and six of the contributors to the volume on November 12 at the East Tennessee History Center. The authors read from and talked about their work.
View the photo album from this event here.
On October 10, the East Tennessee Historical Society and Friends of the Knox County Public Library hosted a lecture and book signing with best-selling author Sharyn McCrumb. McCrumb shared stories about both the folklore and the historical events behind her newest novel, The Unquiet Grave.
View the photo album from this event here.
Friends, the Knox County Public Library, Union Ave Books, and the East Tennessee Historical Society hosted an evening with best-selling author Denise Kiernan on October 5. Kiernan spoke about her latest book, The Last Castle: The Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nation’s Largest Home.
View the photo album from this event here.
Listen to the podcast of the Denise Kiernan event here:
Denise Kiernan, October 5, 2017
Program hosts Friends of the Knox County Public Library, the Knox County Public Library, and the University of Tennessee office of First-Year Studies along with several community partners brought the NEA Big Read to the community October 4–November 13. Station Eleven, the award-winning novel by Emily St. John Mandel, was the focus of a series of book discussions, board games, workshops, lectures, and other events.
Listen to WUOT’s Brandon Hollingsworth’s conversation with Emily St. John Mandel prior to her appearance in Knoxville here, and view a photo album of NEA Big Read events here.
Friends, the Knox County Public Library’s Teen Central, the Center for Children’s & Young Adult Literature at The University of Tennessee, and Union Ave Books came together on September 19 to celebrate the release of Hunting Prince Dracula by YA author Kerri Maniscalco.
Read Chapter 16’s review of Hunting Prince Dracula here, and view the photo album from this event here.
On May 16, Friends, Union Ave Books, the Knox County Public Library, and the East Tennessee Historical Society presented an evening with award-winning author Nathaniel Philbrick, who discussed his most recent book, Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution.
View the photo album from this event here.
Listen to the podcast of the Nathaniel Philbrick event here:
Nathaniel Philbrick, May 16, 2017
Friends, Union Ave Books, and First Presbyterian Church hosted an evening with author Anne Lamott at the church on April 9. Lamott read from and discussed her newest book, Hallelujah Anyway: Rediscovering Mercy. She also filmed a TED Talk, “12 truths I learned from life and writing,” in April that can be viewed here.
View the photo album from this event here and an interview with three of Lamott’s fans here.
Novelist Amy Greene presented the 2017 Wilma Dykeman Stokely Memorial Lecture on March 23 at the East Tennessee History Center. The event was sponsored by Friends, the Library Society of UT, the Knox County Public Library, the East Tennessee Historical Society, and Union Ave Books.
A photo album has been added to the Friends Facebook page (no Facebook account required), and The Library Society has archived a recording of this event.
2016
Jim and Dykeman Stokely, sons of the late Wilma Dykeman, celebrated the posthumous publication of her memoir, Family of Earth: A Southern Mountain Childhood, on September 11 at the East Tennessee History Center. The event was made possible by a partnership of Friends, Union Ave Books, the Library Society of UT, the East Tennessee Historical Society, and the Knox County Public Library.
Photos from the event can be viewed here.
Chapter 16 published An Appetite for Imaginative Living, Nashvillian Emily Choate’s review of Family of Earth, on November 1.
Washington Post reporter and author Dan Zak discussed his new book, Almighty: Courage, Resistance, and Existential Peril in the Nuclear Age, at the East Tennessee History Center on August 4. The event was hosted by Friends, the Knox County Public Library, Union Ave Books, and the East Tennessee Historical Society.
A photo gallery has been added to the archived event page.
The East Tennessee Historical Society and Friends hosted a return visit by author Sharyn McCrumb on May 25. McCrumb talked about her newest Ballad novel, Prayers the Devil Answers.
Photos from the evening have been added to the archived event page.
Friends joined with the Library Society of UT Knoxville for an evening with acclaimed author Robert Morgan on April 7 at the Bijou Theatre. Morgan presented the 2016 Wilma Dykeman Stokely Memorial Lecture. Please visit the Library Society’s website to view a recording of this event.
On March 22, Friends, the East Tennessee Historical Society, the Knox County Public Library, Union Ave Books, and Keurig Green Mountain hosted an evening with best-selling author Erik Larson at the Bijou Theatre.
A photo gallery has been added to the archived event page.
Program hosts Friends of the Knox County Public Library, the Knox County Public Library, the Clarence Brown Theatre, and the Knox County Public Defender’s Community Law Office and several community partners brought The Big Read to Knoxville February 5–March 13. A Lesson Before Dying, the award-winning novel by Ernest J. Gaines, was the focus of book discussions, community events, and performances at the Carousel Theatre.
2015
Friends joined with the East Tennessee Historical Society, the Knox County Public Library, and media sponsor WUOT to present an evening with Steve Inskeep, NPR anchor and author of Jacksonland: President Andrew Jackson, Chief John Ross, and A Great American Land Grab, at the Bijou Theatre on June 2.
On March 12, Friends partnered with The Library Society of the University of Tennessee to bring ethnomusicologist Dom Flemons, the American Songster, to the Bijou Theatre to present the Wilma Dykeman Stokely Memorial Lecture.
Please visit the Library Society of UT’s website to view a recording of this event.
Flemons returned in May 2016 for the Knoxville Stomp Festival of Lost Music, which was sponsored in part by a Friends mini-grant.
2014
An afternoon with Vince Vawter, former managing editor of the Knoxville News Sentinel and author of the Newbery Honor Award-winning novel Paperboy, on October 19 included readings from the book as well as a book signing. Vawter’s essay about the writing of Paperboy, “A Slippery Bar of Soap in a Large Bathtub,” was published by Chapter 16 prior to his appearance at the 2016 Children’s Festival of Reading.
Friends and the Knox County Public Library hosted Christmas in Appalachia, an evening with New York Times-bestselling author Sharyn McCrumb, at the East Tennessee History Center on October 9.
Friends was honored to be a co-sponsor of the Fifth Annual Anne Mayhew Distinguished Honors Lecture given by Robert Reich, Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and former U.S. Secretary of Labor, on the evening of September 23.
Friends joined with the Great Schools Partnership and others to host Amanda Ripley, journalist and author of The Smartest Kids in the World, at the Bijou Theatre on April 9.
Poet, short story writer, and novelist Ron Rash presented the Wilma Dykeman Stokely Memorial Lecture on March 4 at the East Tennessee History Center.
Please visit the Library Society of UT’s website to view a recording of this event.
2013
In partnership with the Knox County Public Library and Union Ave Books, Friends brought Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love and The Signature of All Things, to Knoxville on November 2. Gilbert’s newest book is Big Magic.
Friends joined with several University of Tennessee departments and others as sponsors as noted physician, teacher and bestselling author Abraham Verghese gave the Fourth Annual Anne Mayhew Distinguished Honors Lecture on September 25.
On May 21, Denise Kiernan, author of The Girls of Atomic City, spoke at the East Tennessee History Center at an event sponsored by Friends and Union Ave Books.
Journalist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author and military historian Rick Atkinson spoke at the Bijou Theatre on the afternoon of May 19 at an event co-sponsored by Friends, the Knox County Public Library, and the East Tennessee Historical Society.
Pulitzer Prize winner and noted Tennessee author Jon Meacham discussed his book Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power at the Bijou Theatre on February 18, an event co-sponsored by Friends, the Knox County Public Library, and the East Tennessee Historical Society. Meacham’s most recent book is Destiny and Power, a biography of former president George H. W. Bush.
2012
In celebration of the 125th Anniversary of the Knox County Public Library, Friends hosted author Marianne Wiggins, who discussed her novel Evidence of Things Unseen at the East Tennessee History Center on January 24.
2009
Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya, a story of pride and assimilation, faith and doubt, was the selection for The Big Read in September. The event was launched on September 16 in conjunction with Hispanic Heritage Month.
Native Knoxvillian Minky Worden, editor of China’s Great Leap: The Beijing Games and Olympian Human Rights Challenges and co-editor of Torture, delivered the Wilma Dykeman Stokely Memorial Lecture on March 24.
2007
Comedian, author, and library spokesperson Paula Poundstone appeared at the Bijou Theatre on October 7 at an event to benefit Friends.
Biographer Charles J. Shields, author of Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee, presented the inaugural Wilma Dykeman Stokely Memorial Lecture on October 2; Friends, the YWCA and the Knox County Public Library sponsored the event.
Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird was the selection for The Big Read, which took place September 26–October 31.
New York Times-bestselling author Sharyn McCrumb spoke at the Burlington Branch of the Knox County Public Library on March 23.
2006
Elizabeth Kostova, author of the best-selling novel The Historian and former student of long-time Friends member Ginna Mashburn, spoke at the East Tennessee History Center on November 14.
Friends joined with Friends of the University of Tennessee Gardens, the Knoxville Museum of Art Guild, and the Hodges Fund of the University of Tennessee Department of English for an evening with Emily Herring Wilson, editor of Two Gardeners: A Friendship in Letters and author of No One Gardens Alone: A Life of Elizabeth Lawrence, on March 7 at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Church.
2004
Friends again joined several other sponsors to support One Book, One Community. Groups all over Knox County participated in discussions of A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines in February.
2003
Friends welcomed Knoxville native Monica Langley, journalist and author of Tearing Down the Walls.
James Agee‘s A Death in the Family was the choice for February’s One Book, One Community. Knoxvillians again joined together for book discussions all month.
2002
Homer Hickam, author of Rocket Boys, the book that inspired the film October Sky, spoke on September 9. October Sky was shown at the Tennessee Theatre on September 8. Hickam’s most recent book is Carrying Albert Home.
The 2002 selection for One Book, One Community was John Steinbeck‘s The Pearl. Book discussions were held at branch libraries and other venues. The grand finale was a Steinbeck Film Festival held May 19–22 at the Knoxville Museum of Art, the Farragut Town Hall, and the Tennessee Theatre.
2001
Pulitzer Prize-winning memoirist and author Rick Bragg appeared at the Bijou Theatre as the guest of Friends.
1996
On April 8, James B. Stewart, author of Blood Sport, spoke at the Bijou Theatre at an event to benefit Friends and the Knox County Public Library.
1994
Friends brought John Berendt, the man behind the best-selling true-crime book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, to Knoxville to speak at the Tennessee Theatre.
1993
Book lovers braved a winter storm to hear author John Updike, who was best known for his quartet of Rabbit novels, at the Tennessee Theatre.
1992
Friends sponsored a second BookFest in downtown Knoxville in October that again featured a number of authors, vendors and children’s activities.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author William Kennedy spoke at the 1992 Book and Author event.
1991
In October, Friends sponsored BookFest, a downtown event featuring over 30 authors as well as vendors and children’s activities.
Friends hosted New York Times-bestselling author Pat Conroy at the Tennessee Theatre.
1990
The 1990 Book and Authors Dinner featured Roy Blount Jr. and Lee Smith.
1989
Authors Fred Chappell and George Garrett spoke at the Friends Book and Author Dinner.
1988
Wilma Dykeman Stokely again acted as moderator/interviewer for the Book and Author Dinner, which featured authors Ferrol Sams and Anne Rivers Siddons.
1987
The first Friends Book and Author Dinner featured authors Clyde Edgerton, Peter Taylor and Wilma Dykeman Stokely, with Ms. Stokely acting as a moderator/interviewer.
1986
West Town Mall was the site of the first Friends book and author event, a book fair that was held in conjunction with Lawson McGhee Library’s Centennial Celebration. Some 60 authors, including Will Campbell, Josephine Humphreys and James Still, appeared during the 2-day event to meet readers and autograph books.
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