Editor’s Notes

The cover for Gone Before Goodbye, Reese Witherspoon’s collaboration with award-winning mystery author Harlan Coben, was revealed last week, and that got us thinking about some of the other intriguing books due for release this fall. Silas House, writing as S.D. House, has penned his own mystery novel with Dead Man Blues, which, like Gone Before Goodbye, is due in October. September will bring Nashville…

The Mountain Heritage Literary Festival is coming up May 30-31, with featured authors including Frank X Walker and Denton Loving. The Clarksville Writers Conference will take place June 4-6. Margaret Renkl and Billy Renkl will be the keynote speakers for the conference, and featured authors include Amy Wright, Joy Jordan-Lake, and Meredith Lyons. If you’ve dreamed of a Smoky Mountain writing retreat, take note that the Tremont Writers Conference is still…

There’s abundant good news this week about Humanities Tennessee’s fundraising efforts in response to the DOGE cancellation of NEH grants. The outpouring of support from Ann Patchett’s $20 challenge has been extraordinary, with more than 1,000 contributors so far. The campaign continues through May 9. Meanwhile, other donors have made generous gifts, and the Mellon Foundation has stepped up to offer a…

If you follow Parnassus Books on social media (and who doesn’t?), you’ve probably seen Ann Patchett‘s video announcing her matching campaign in support of Humanities Tennessee. She’s urging her followers to donate $20 — the price of a paperback book — to save HT’s many programs, including Chapter 16 and the Southern Festival of Books. She’ll be personally matching those gifts up to $10,000. The link…

Our friends at The Porch, Nashville’s nonprofit writing center, are having a fundraiser on May 9 to benefit Humanities Tennessee during the current funding crisis. Yurina Yoshikawa will lead a generative writing workshop followed by an open mic reading with the theme “Tennessee, in Your Own Words.” See all the details here. (And don’t forget The Porch’s own annual fundraiser on May 2, which will…

The funding crisis continues for state humanities councils, including Humanities Tennessee. Serenity Gerbman, HT’s director of literature and language programs, shared a letter last week explaining the gravity of the situation and what’s at stake. She writes, “What I can tell you is that, if this period of federal funding uncertainty persists, Humanities Tennessee will cease to exist within a…