‘Tis the season! It’s April and there was A LOT happening downtown this half-gorgeous weekend, from the Dogwood Arts Festival Chalk Walk to the Covenant Health Knoxville Marathon to a large demonstration flanking Henley Street and Summit Hill.
Quietly squeezed in amidst it all was the inaugural Knoxville Book Festival, taking place across two days at the Convention Center. This “celebration of the power of books” featured discussions, panels, workshops and a dizzying array of vendors including authors, publishers, makers and more.
“This is an idea we’ve had brewing for a couple of years now,” says Bradley Drake of Right Brain Productions LLC, which also includes Diana Waldeck and Jennifer Johnsey. In addition to Knoxville Book Festival, the event organizers founded CreepyCon, taking place at the Convention Center Aug. 1–3. “It feels like there’s been a shift in people going back to physical media – books, records, all kinds of things – so it feels like the right time. We all love to read and we read different things, and we wanted to offer an event for readers put on by people who love books but also people who love events.”
The event’s headliners included Charlaine Harris, the #1 NYT bestselling author of the Sookie Stackhouse series that inspired True Blood, as well as Maze Runner author James Dashner.
Walking inside was a calm and air-conditioned escape from external mayhem, similar to the experience of opening a book sometimes. There’s a sense of control – the choice is which world you enter, and at any point whether or not you want to keep reading. Even when the world inside the book is crumbling, burning, unraveling, we retain the option to close it. Step back. Breathe. That control is a quiet kind of power. The real world rarely offers such a tidy exit—but fiction does.
The author vendors were sectioned into five aisles, all geared toward either adults or young adults. “I just wanted a cool place for people to get together and a cool place for adults to get together who are also into reading. There are a ton of amazing kids programs (including Knox County Public Library’s annual Children’s Festival of Reading, which takes place May 17). That’s great, but we also want something for adults and not something that’s exclusively romance, right? Because not every adult exclusively reads romance … We definitely wanted to support all genres,” Bradley says.
Each section had around 20 authors represented:
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- Romance/Romantacy (with an additional, cordoned-off Spicy/Adults Only section)
- Horror/Paranormal
- Comics/Graphic Novels/Manga
- Suspense/Thriller
- Action/Adventure/Sci-Fi/Fantasy
It was fun to put names of books with the faces of their authors. You could spend a full day just perusing author/publisher vendors – it was a real showcase for some local and mostly regional talent. Everyone you met was happy to share with you the story behind their stories.
I was excited to see Parkridge’s own writer/illustrator power couple Eleanor Scott and Adam Pernell Deal, of Part Flamingo Press, shoehorned into the Horror aisle even though their first book, Knoxville Mermaid, is a favorite bedtime story for my goth-curious 5-year-old. Their newest book Starlight Garden feels like a lucid dream, Ellie’s language a crystal garden wrapped around and through with Adam’s dark, sinewy illustrations.
It was great to meet (in-person, finally!) Kristen Combs, director of communications & social strategies for Visit Knoxville, whose writing you’ve probably read without even realizing it via their blog and social media. She is also the author of 100 Things to Do in Knoxville Before You Die. I’ve had this book in rotation for a while and am on a never-ending quest to fill up my to-do bingo card with its suggestions. It’s amazing to me that I’ve lived here 43 years and uncharted territory still remains.
I also discovered “Lady Sunflower: Stories, Songs, and Poems from the Desk of Kill.Gertrude,” by the late Sierra Shuck-Sparer. Sierra, a student at West High School, was diagnosed at age 15 with the unimaginable: pediatric cancer. She named her brain tumor “Gertrude” and chronicled her thoughts in a remarkable blend of heart-rending poetry, introspective essays and songs, zines and curated playlists. Her “Make a Wish” was that they be compiled into a book. Sierra passed away just over a year ago; she was represented by her mother at the Festival.
And so many more.
The lead bookseller was Fable Hollow Coffee & Bookshoppe, which may be Fountain City’s best kept secret. Tucked into a random Tazewell Pike business park, it’s a secret portal into niche fantastical and magickal genres and the communities that embrace them. I only recently discovered it and subsequently participated in a poetry open mic there that featured a variety of styles and the warmest, most welcoming reception.
Other vendors ranged from gifts (honorable mention to local StarrGlow Candle Co.’s School Book Fair” scented candle, which according to the label smells like “kitten posters, scented school supplies, spy kits and comic books”) to booths for artists, makers and more.
I did a deep-dive into Mallory Bertrand’s photography which I might not have encountered if it weren’t for Knoxville Book Festival. She really elevates the medium to the next level — so creative and otherworldly.
I really hope the Knoxville Book Festival comes back for a second year. The vendor turnout was awesome, the networking was solid, and you could tell a lot of love went into it. In the future, it’d be great to get even more attendees through the doors. Maybe that means switching up the time of year or even trying something like a ticket that works as a credit toward a book or some merch. The vendors really showed up, and it’d be amazing to see them sell a ton of books too.
Learn more about Knoxville Book Festival here.