Oak Ridge Today

New anthology published, author reading & signing May 6

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

In Gods Hand

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…]

Oak Ridge teachers Jane Sasser, Brian Smith receive Outstanding Educator awards

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Jane Sasser, English teacher at Oak Ridge High School, and Brian Smith, history teacher at Jefferson Middle School, were two out of only six recipients from the entire state who received the Outstanding Educator Awards from Humanities Tennessee.

According to the Humanities Tennessee website, these awards were available for up to six full-time, third- to 12th-grade teachers in Tennessee who have demonstrated excellence in teaching the humanities. Since 1985, Humanities Tennessee has awarded almost $400,000 to 169 teachers in Tennessee.

Applicants for this award are expected to be skillful and dedicated teachers who exhibit expansive and in-depth knowledge of the subjects they teach, a press release said. They are to have the respect of students, parents, and co-workers, and have a record of active involvement in community activities and professional organizations, particularly those that promote the humanities.

Sasser and Smith will each receive a $2,000 fellowship to further their professional development in the humanities. Oak Ridge High School and Jefferson Middle School will each receive a $1,500 grant to be used for the purchase of humanities instructional materials or for student humanities projects. [Read more…]

State: Tennessee Mountain Writers workshops to meet in Morristown

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Tennessee Mountain Writers has scheduled writing workshops at the “January Jumpstart XV” from January 9-11, 2015, at the Best Western Morristown Conference Center in Morristown, and a high school teacher who lives in Oak Ridge will lead the fiction workshop.

By popular demand, Jane Sasser, the teacher, will be leading the fiction workshop, and Bill Brown returns to lead the poetry workshop, a press release said. The event is sponsored by Tennessee Mountain Writers. It will open with an informal social hour on Friday evening; workshop sessions will run from 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. on Saturday and from 8:30-11:30 a.m. on Sunday.

Sasser was born and raised in Fairview, North Carolina. Following in the footsteps of both parents and numerous other relatives and ancestors, she is a lifelong lover of stories and storytelling. Her poetry has appeared in The Atlanta Review, The North American Review, The Sun, The Lullwater Review, Appalachian Heritage, The National Forum, Sow’s Ear, and numerous other anthologies and publications. She has won first place in fiction contests with the Knoxville Writers’ Guild, The Alabama Writers Conclave, and the Green River Writers. She is the author of two poetry chapbooks, “Recollecting the Snow” and “Itinerant,” and two novel manuscripts, “Where You Ought to Be” and “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child.” A high school teacher of English and creative writing, she currently lives in Oak Ridge. [Read more…]