The Oak Ridge Public Library expects to be closed on five separate occasions between October 15 and November 23 to allow for planned work to the rooftop air conditioning and heating system as well as staff work days, a press release said.
“During this six-week time period, patrons should expect increased noise and a high level of construction activity in and around the library,” the press release said.
The planned library closure dates are as follows: [Read more…]
Students from each of the 75 classes of Oak Ridge Schools have shared their school memories in a new book. There is a “reveal party” for the book, “Celebrating 75 Years of Excellence in Education: Oak Ridge Schools, 1944-2018,” on Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2018, at Oak Ridge High School. (Submitted photo)
Students from each of the 75 classes of Oak Ridge Schools have shared their school memories in a new book.
There is a “reveal party” for the book, “Celebrating 75 Years of Excellence in Education: Oak Ridge Schools, 1944-2018,” on Wednesday at Oak Ridge High School. The celebration is scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, September 26, in the Oak Ridge High School Amphitheater.
The celebration is being hosted by the Oak Ridge Public Schools Education Foundation.
Moira Kaye—ORHS graduate, former local television news anchor, and Miss Tennessee 1983—will lead a panel discussion with ORHS alumni across the decades from the 1940s to the 1980s, a press release said. The panelists and Kaye are book anchor authors for their ORHS graduation classes. Their stories and other reminiscing will be further highlighted by an ORHS choral presentation of the ORHS Alma Mater and the ORHS Fight Song and the presentation of colors by the ORHS JROTC Flag Corps. Also, volunteers who served on the book project will be recognized. [Read more…]
Elizabeth Genovise
Have you ever felt the urge to write, but stopped yourself because you were not sure how to start?
You can learn how to create, write, and publish a story through a special three-part workshop offered by Roane State Community College assistant English professor and award-winning writer Elizabeth Genovise.
Genovise will teach the workshop—Fiction Writing 101—in September at Roane State’s Oak Ridge campus at 701 Briarcliff Avenue. The sessions will be held on Fridays—September 7, September 14, and September 21—from 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
The cost is $89 for all three sessions. The workshop is open to anyone.
“I’ve always wanted to have a community workshop to help writers of any experience level express their ideas,†Genovise said. “If you can dream, you can write fiction and experience the joy of creating a story. I am very excited about this workshop.†[Read more…]
The Mad Hatter’s Arts Festival in Jackson Square on Saturday will feature arts and crafts vendors, poetry, music, food, dancers, authors, and interactive arts stations.
The free festival, the first of its kind, is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. It’s presented by Through the Looking Glass Antiques and Collectibles in Jackson Square.
A Jabberwocky Poetry Slam is scheduled at Razzleberry’s Ice Cream Lab and Kitchen from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. An open mic will start at 2 p.m. for walk-ins who didn’t sign up for the family-friendly event but want to perform.
Sixteen local songwriters will perform original acoustic music all day, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., in the square. There will also be musicians playing cover songs at the festival, said Linda Johnston of Through the Looking Glass.
At noon, the Oak Ridge Civic Ballet dancers will perform in the square. [Read more…]
The Oak Ridge Public Library will host a writing workshop on Saturday, July 14, from 12 p.m. until 2 p.m. Author Michael C. Miles is the special guest for the workshop, which will focus on how to become a published author, a press release said.
Miles is from Bristol, Tennessee, and he now lives in Knoxville. His first novel, “Dominion,” was published two years ago. His second book, “The Dying Lesson,” was recently published and is being adapted for a short film. The film is expected to be shot in the Tri-Cities/Knoxville area. [Read more…]
Danita “Dee Dee” Ashley
The Friends of the Oak Ridge Public Library will participate in the Secret City Festival held at the Oak Ridge Civic Center on Friday and Saturday, June 8-9, by sponsoring local authors. The authors will be in the Club Room of the Oak Ridge Civic Center, autographing and selling their books at the following times:
Friday, June 8
Saturday, June 9
The featured local authors will read from their work at 15-minute intervals, and they include: [Read more…]
Ridge City Ramblers perform at the Flatwater Festival in 2017. (Photo courtesy Flatwater Festival)
Reminder:Â The second Flatwater Festival presented by the three Rotary clubs of Oak Ridge will be held from noon to 9 p.m. on Saturday, June 2, at Melton Lake Park.
And the Flatwater Tales Storytelling Festival, which will feature three world renowned storytellers, has events on Friday and Sunday. It is the first storytelling festival in the Oak Ridge area.
Organizers said the Flatwater Festival on Saturday will include bands, beer, boat races, and bounce houses; wine, water, and soda; and face painting, food vendors, and fun for all, including corn hole games.
New this year is a team-building regatta featuring up to 20 boats. It will be held from 12:30 to 5 p.m. in collaboration with the Oak Ridge Rowing Association. A “build a boat†race by participants who make their own cardboard boats ahead of time will be held at 5 p.m. [Read more…]
From left are Bil Lepp, Tim Lowry, and Minton Sparks. (Photos courtesy Flatwater Tales)
Internationally acclaimed storytellers to perform, share laughter and tears, and create memories
The Flatwater Festival in Oak Ridge has announced a major addition to its 2018 schedule: The Flatwater Tales Storytelling Festival, featuring three world renowned storytellers. This will be an annual event sponsored by the three Rotary Clubs in Oak Ridge, all volunteers, as part of the Flatwater Festival weekend. This is the first storytelling festival in the Oak Ridge area, a press release said.
Bil Lepp, Tim Lowry, and Minton Sparks will perform for this inaugural festival. They have achieved national and international recognition and appear regularly at festivals, including the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee, the press release said.
Flatwater Tales kicks off on Friday, June 1, with a three-hour interactive writing workshop, “Create Your Own Story,†with Minton Sparks. The goal is to help participants discover their own stories from their family history and experiences, structure their stories, and share them with others. The workshop is being held in a serene woodland setting at the auditorium in the University of Tennessee Arboretum in Oak Ridge. No previous writing or performing experience is needed, the press release said. [Read more…]
Image by Tennessee Mountain Writers
Tennessee Mountain Writers will celebrate its 30th Annual Conference with the theme “No Grit, No Pearl†on Thursday through Saturday, April 5-7, at the DoubleTree Hotel in Oak Ridge. The conference will include workshops, writing contests, networking, manuscript evaluations, publishers, editors, book signings, a bookstore, vendors, and more, a press release said.
Marilyn Kallet will lead the Poetry workshops and will be the keynote speaker at the awards banquet, the concluding event of the conference, the press release said. Kallet, Nancy Moore Goslee Professor at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, has published 17 books, including “The Love That Moves Me,” poetry from Black Widow Press (2013), and “How Our Bodies Learned,” lyric poetry from Black Widow Press (January 2018). She teaches poetry workshops each spring in Auvillar, France, for the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, at their French studio. She has performed her poems on campuses and in theaters across the United States, as well as in France and Poland as a guest of the U.S. Embassy. The University of Tennessee lists her as a specialist in poetry and dreams, poetry and healing, and poetry’s role in times of crisis.
Kelly O’Connor McNees will lead the Writing for Young People workshops and will be the General Session speaker. McNees is the author of “The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott,” “The Island of Doves,” and “In Need of a Good Wife,” a finalist for the 2013 Willa Award. Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post and The Toast, and is forthcoming in the Chicago Anthology, the press release said. She is the recipient of the 2017 Meg Medina Artist-in-Residency Scholarship from the Highlights Foundation. She runs Word Bird Editorial Services, which helps writers of all stripes improve their craft and prepare their work for publication, and speaks at libraries, conferences, and book clubs. Born and raised in Michigan, she lives in Chicago with her family. [Read more…]
The cover of “The Atomic City Girls” novel by Janet Beard is pictured above. (Submitted photo)
The author of a new novel inspired by the experiences of the Americans who fueled the World War II-era Manhattan Project will visit the American Museum of Science and Energy on Thursday, February 15. The event will begin at 5:30 p.m.
Janet Beard, whose grandmother worked on the Manhattan Project, will give a presentation on her writing process for “The Atomic City Girls,” which was informed by many captivating oral and written histories, a press release said. Beard also will read excerpts and sign copies of her book. Copies will be on sale at the AMSE gift shop beginning February 6.
Through its fictionalized tale of 18-year-old June Walker, her romance with a young physicist, and her search for the truth about the goals of the Manhattan Project, “The Atomic City Girls” brings to life the previously untold story of thousands who moved to East Tennessee in the 1930s and 1940s to join the effort to win the war and highlights the role women played at a pivotal moment in the country’s history and Oak Ridge’s founding. [Read more…]
The Writers of Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church have published an anthology, “In God’s Hand,” featuring poems, essays, memoir, and fiction from some of the area’s top writers. Readings from the book will be the program for the Grace Lutheran Church Flower Festival Tea at 2 p.m. Saturday, May 6. The readings will be followed by a book sale and autograph session. The book costs $15. All proceeds from the sale will go toward literary scholarships.
The book features 50 writers from seven states, including well-known writers such as KB Ballentine, Bill Brown, Judy DiGregorio, Sue Weaver Dunlap, Penny Dyer, Carol Grametbauer, Connie Jordan Green, Jane Hicks, Elizabeth Howard, Marilyn Kallet, Denton Loving, John C. Mannone, Linda Parsons, Phyllis Price, Jane Sasser, Wes Sims, Kory Wells, Sylvia Woods, and others, many from Oak Ridge and the surrounding area, a press release said.
The Flower Festival celebrates the 70th anniversary of Grace Lutheran Church and the 500th anniversary of the Reformation with the theme “For the Beauty of the Earth,” based on the hymn by that name. In addition to the readings, the Flower Festival will feature a flower show, exhibits from Boy and Girl Scouts, children’s activities, a plant swap (all on Saturday 1-4), and a music program in the church sanctuary at 3 p.m. Sunday, the press release said.
Arissa Garden Club of Oak Ridge, a group that meets at Grace, is holding a flower show during the Festival, including both flower arrangements and horticulture specimens. The show will open on Saturday afternoon and remain in place through the music program on Sunday afternoon. [Read more…]
Friends of the Oak Ridge Public Library will have its Spring 2017 Book Sale May 11-14 in the Oak Ridge Public Library Auditorium.
The sale will include fiction and nonfiction books, magazines, audiovisual materials, and other publications covering almost every subject, a press release said. A few non-publication items will also be available. Most titles are 50 cents or $1 each. Titles withdrawn from the Library are half-price Thursday through Saturday. The Silent Auction begins on Thursday evening and ends at 5 p.m. Saturday.
Thursday evening from 5 to 7:30 p.m. is a preview sale for members. Memberships will be available at the door ($5 per individual, and $10 per family). (Scanning devices cannot be used during the preview sale on Thursday.) [Read more…]
