The
East Tennessee
Writer
Newsletter of the Knoxville Writers’ Guild
May 2015, Vol. 23, No. 5
www.knoxvillewritersguild.org
Schoenewaldt to Launch Third Novel at KWG Program
By Adria Amos
HarperCollins.
P
"The pub date... was
actually moved up by
HarperCollins for this
launch," she said.
amela
Schoenewaldt,
USA Today
bestselling novelist, will launch her third
novel, "Under the Same
Blue Sky," at the next
Knoxville Writers' Guild
program, Thursday,
May 7.
The event, which will
be open to the public,
will begin at 7 p.m. at the
Laurel Theater, at the
corner of Laurel Avenue
and 16th Streets (in Fort
Sanders). A $2 donation
is requested at the door.
The building is handicapped accessible. Additional parking is available at Redeemer
Church of Knoxville,
1642 Highland Ave.
Schoenewaldt's
"Under the
Same Blue
Sky" is set to
be released
the day of the
program by
The historical novel is
set in a GermanAmerican community
during World War I. The
story centers on Hazel
Renner, who has mysterious healing powers
that bring shattering consequences. Her journey
takes her to an exiled
baron’s looming castle in
New Jersey and into the
ruins of post-war Germany to solve the mystery of her past, ultimately of herself, as she
fashions a new kind of
healing for a shellshocked hero and one
small boy.
Schoenewaldt is
the author of "When We
Were Strangers" and
"Swimming in the
Moon," which will be released in German in November. Her short stories have appeared in
literary magazines in
England, France, Italy
and the United States.
She taught
writing for
the University of Maryland, European Division and the
University of
Tennessee and lives in
Knoxville with her husband, Maurizio Conti, a
physicist, and their dog,
Jesse. For more information, including an excerpt from "Under the
Same Blue Sky," visit
http://
pamelaschoenewaldt.com.
The book will be
available for purchase at
the program, courtesy of
Union Ave Books. Additional information about
KWG and its events can
be found at
www.KnoxvilleWritersGu
ild.org.
Photo credit:
Kelly Norrell
KWG Announces
Judges for Annual Writing
Contest
T
he Knoxville Writers' Guild has secured a group of
talented and
highly respected writers to
serve as judges for its
2015 writing contest. The
judges and their bios are
listed below under their
respective category.
The Leslie Garrett Award
for Literary Fiction:
Jeanne McDonald has
published fiction and nonfiction in
magazines,
journals and
anthologies,
including
"American Fiction," "Better
Homes and Gardens,"
"Poets & Writers" and
"Migrants and Stowaways,
Low Explosions."
Continued on Page 2
May
Meeting
KWG 2015
Contest Judges
Members’
Announcements
PTSD
Program
Page 1
Page 1
Page 3
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THE EAST TENNESSEE WRITER
KWG Contest Judges
Continued from Page 1
Her novel, "Water Dreams," was
published by the University Press
of Mississippi in September 2003.
McDonald was inducted into the
East Tennessee Writers Hall of
Fame in 2007. She has coauthored two books of nonfiction
with her husband, Fred Brown:
"Growing Up Southern: How the
South Shapes Its Writers" and
"The Serpent Handlers: Three
Families and Their Faith," which
won the Harry Caudill Award for
Journalistic Reporting. She is a
recipient of the Tennessee Arts
Commission/Alex Haley Fiction
Fellowship and many other
awards.
The KWG Award for Novel Excerpt: Pamela Schoenewaldt is
the USA Today bestselling author of "When We
Were Strangers," "Swimming in
the Moon" and the
upcoming "Under
the Same Blue Sky," all by HarperCollins. Her short stories have appeared in literary magazines in England, France, Italy and the United
States. Her play, "Espresso con mia
madre" (Espresso with my mother)
was performed at Teatro Cilea in
Naples. She taught writing for the
University of Maryland, European
Division and the University of Tennessee, and her interactive writing
workshops inspire writers of all genre
and stages.
The Libba Moore Gray Award
for Poetry: Marilyn Kallet is the
author of 16 books,
including "The Love
that Moves Me,"
"Packing Light: New
and Selected Po-
ems," "Circe, After Hours" and
"Last Love Poems of Paul Eluard."
She directs the Creative Writing
Program at the University of Tennessee, where she is also Professor of English. She also teaches
poetry workshops for the Virginia
Center for the Creative Arts, in
Auvillar, France. She has directed
the Young Writers' Institute for 22
years. Kallet has been awarded
the Tennessee Arts Commission
Literary Fellowship in Poetry, and
was inducted into the East Tennessee Literary Hall of Fame in
Poetry in 2005. She has performed her poetry on campuses
and in theaters across the United
States, and in Poland as a guest
of the U.S. Embassy’s "America
Presents" cultural arts program.
The KWG Award for Creative
Nonfiction: Jack Neely is a columnist and
local historian.
He is the author of several
books, including "The Tennessee Theater: A Grand Entertainment Palace," Knoxville: This
Obscure Prismatic City" and
"Market Square: A History of the
Most Democratic Place on Earth."
He is the founder and executive
director of the Knoxville History
Project, a nonprofit that, among
other things, serves as a publishing house for local history and the
new "Knoxville Mercury."
The KWG Award for Genre Fiction: Lowell Cunningham created the comic book
series "The Men in
Black." This series
spawned the 1997
film "Men in Black,"
as well as its 2002
sequel, "Men in Black II," its 2012
sequel, "Men in Black 3," and an
2
animated television program, "Men
in Black: The Series."
The Young Writers Prize:
Lisa Soland is the author of two
children's books:
"The Christmas
Tree Angel" and its
sequel, "The Unmade Moose." She
is a renowned playwright, with plays
"Waiting," "Cabo San Lucas,"
"Truth Be Told," "The Name Game"
and "The Man in the Gray Suit &
Other Plays" all published internationally by Samuel French Inc. With
more than 40 international publications in all, her work can also be
found in “best of” anthologies published by French, Smith & Kraus,
Applause Books and Dramatic Publishing. Her book "The Writer’s Motivation" has inspired countless
writers to fill the blank page.
Submissions for the writing contest
are being accepted in six different
categories now through midnight,
Tuesday, June 30. For complete
submission guidelines, please visit
www.knoxvillewritersguild.org/
contest.
THE EAST TENNESSEE WRITER
FROM NEW YORK TO
THE SMOKIES
By Wayne Zurl ~ From Melange Books, LLC
“The Boat to Prison”—set in 1963
when a teenaged Jenkins and his
friends attempt to foil a plot to kill a
Long Island union leader and keep
Sam’s shop steward father from
doing hard time.
“Favors” drops readers into a New
York of 1985 when Lieutenant Sam
Jenkins mounts an unofficial investigation to learn why one of his civilian employees isn’t overjoyed
about her promotion to police officer and uncovers a history of unreported and unspeakable crimes.
Nancy McGlasson's manuscript,
"Flying Kites at Night," was recently selected to be workshopped at this year's prestigious
Iowa Summer Writing Festival.
Nationally renowned memoir
writer Hope Edelman, whose
book, "Motherless Daughters,"
was a New York Times bestseller,
will be leading the two-week workshop. McGlasson's book-length
manuscript, only one of ten selected, is about her elder son's
suicide.
McGlasson is a member of the
KWG's Fiction and More writing
group, which meets in Maryville.
Her two-part essay, "When You're
Driven to Write," appeared last
year in Mary Kay Shanley's enewsletter, "Words and Other
Worthy Endeavors," and her short
story, "The End of the Train," was
named a finalist in the 2014
Glimmer Train Short-story Award
for New Writers contest.
3
John C. Mannone is delighted to
announce that his (mostly) poetry
collection, Apocalypse, has been
accepted by
Alban Lake Publishing.
“Apocalypse” is a collection of
speculative poetry and very short
fiction addressing external natural
disasters, both terrestrial and extraterrestrial, as well as internal
disasters that threaten the
existence of mankind.
“Ode to Willie Joe,” “Angel of the
Lord,” and “Massacre at Big Bear
Creek” brings the reader up to date
with three adventures of Chief Jenkins and the officers of Prospect
PD, a police department serving a
small town in the foothills of The
Great Smoky Mountains of east
Daryl J. Yearwood’s short story,
Tennessee. UFO sightings, a serial
“Tribute,” has made the second
killer on the loose, and the most
round at Daily Science Fiction,
brutal murders and feud between
rarified company that more than
mountain folk since the Hatfields
90% of submissions do not reach.
and McCoys pushes Sam to use
every trick he’s learned in a lifetime While half or more of the second
round stories will not ultimately
of detective work to resolve these
see publication under the DSF
incidents on his “peaceful side of
rocket, this story has reached the
the Smokies.”
final go/no-go before launch.
About the author: Wayne Zurl grew
About the author: Daryl Yearup on Long Island and retired after
wood’s short stories and poems
twenty years with the Suffolk
County Police Department, one of have appeared in “Phoenix,” “The
the largest municipal law enforce- Volunteer Review,” and “The Medulla Review.” Daryl served as
ment agencies in New York. For
guest poetry editor for the Fall
thirteen of those years he served
2011 edition of “Stirring,” and is
as a section commander supervisthe editor of “The East Tennesing investigators. He is a graduate
see Writer.” His fantasy novel,
of SUNY, Empire State College
“The One Rider: Ashandor
and served on active duty in the
Chronicles
– Book 1,” and short
US Army during the Vietnam War
story
collection,
“Future Text, Vol.
and later in the reserves. Zurl left
1,” are available at Amazon and
New York to live in the foothills of
Smashwords.
the Great Smoky Mountains.
THE EAST TENNESSEE WRITER
It takes a village
P
amela Schoenewaldt drew
on a wide variety of Guild
and community resources
to research, write, and edit
“Under the Same Blue Sky.” "I had
explored the use of magic realism in
some of the short stories I developed in the
Guild short fiction writing group," she explained, "and when I
started to write novels, I
always wanted to put in that eleOrganized in
December
1992 in
Knoxville,
TN, to facilitate a broad,
inclusive and
egalitarian community among area writers: to provide a forum for information,
support and sharing among writers; to
help members improve and market their
writing skills, and to promote writing and
creativity in the wider community through
education, publication and sponsorship
of writing related public events. Meetings
are held the first Thursday of each
month at the Laurel Theater. Officers:
President Donna Kapa, Vice President
Kara McClain, Treasurer Sarah Hopper,
and Secretary Kara McClain; Archivist,
David Booker; Board Members: Donna
Kapa, Kara McClain, Robert Beasley,
Kelly Norrell, Sara Hopper, Erin Rowland, Betty Southworth, Sara Hopper,
Robert Vogel, Debra Dylan, Doug
Romig. Executive Committee: Donna
Kapa, Robert Beasley, Patricia Gilliam,
Sara Keller, Betty Southworth, Kara
McClain, Kelly Norrell. Hospitality Chair:
Betty Southworth; Newsletter Editor:
Daryl J. Yearwood; Webmaster: Corey
Gilliam.
The KWG does not discriminate against
any person because of race, age, gender, handicap or country of national origin. Send email messages to editor,
Daryl J. Yearwood, [email protected].
Web: www.knoxvillewritersguild.org.
ment." She got her opportunity with
the theme of magic healing and its
consequence in this, her third
novel.
For the many research questions
not answerable via Google, Pamela
drew on the Knoxville Public Library
reference department and interlibrary loans. For medical questions,
she interviewed local doctors and
pediatricians. Epidemiologist Kathy
Brown of the public health department helped in researching the
1919 Influenza epidemic. To accurately describe shell shock, now
known as PTSD, she used library
books and interviews with local
therapists and psychotherapists as
well as online historical and medical
material.
And finally, throughout the writing
process, she shared chapters with
writing friends here and by email. "In
the last stages of editing," Pamela
remembers, "when you have read
and revised the same material so
many, many times, the eyes and the
mind blur." She turned to Linda Parsons Marion, a long-time Guild
member for "the unimaginable
benefit of a poet-editor-friend."
"The actual writing business is a
lonely affair," Pamela says. "You do
feel like you are walking on air over
a chasm. But there are so many
people there to help, to share information and a reader's eye. It's your
job to weave from all this an involving story, but it's good to know you
aren't really alone."
Schoenewaldt’s second novel, “Swimming
in the Moon”
(HarperCollins, 2013)
will be released in German by HarperCollins
in November, 2015,
under the title: “The
Nightingale’s Daughter.”
4
Therapist and
Novelist Explore
PTSD
D
r. Ellison Mitchell, a
clinical psychologist
specializing in stress
management and
post-traumatic stress disorder
(PTSD), will team with Pamela
Schoenewaldt, “USA Today”
Bestselling historical novelist, to present “Shell Shock
& PTSD: Fact &
Fiction,” a free program at Lawson
McGhee Library,
Thursday, May 14,
2015, from 6:30-8:00 pm.
The program will include
rare documentary footage of
World War I shell shock victims
and a brief history of PTSD
symptoms recorded as early as
500 BCE. Schoenewaldt’s
readings from her latest novel,
“Under the Same Blue Sky,”
set during World War I, offer
vivid images of military and civilian shell shock (PTSD)
symptoms.
Then, Dr. Mitchell, a military
veteran, will outline promising
new treatment options for
PTSD.
Handouts of community resources for PTSD survivors,
family members, and caregivers will be available. Members of the helping professions
and the general public are invited to this multi-faceted presentation of a condition affecting
millions of Americans today.