A New York Times bestselling author, a Country Music Hall of Fame member, a former foreign news correspondent, and a celebrated Knoxville sportswriter are among the 2022 inductees into the East Tennessee Writers Hall of Fame.
Knoxville native John McManus will be inducted for his achievement in fiction writing and is joined by Edgar Miller, journalism; Paul Ashdown and Ed Caudill, nonfiction; DeAnna Stephens, poetry; Dean Dillon, songwriting; Alan Gratz, young adult literature; and Marvin West, lifetime achievement.
The inductees will be honored at a ceremony at The Foundry on the Fair Site on April 8 from 6-9 p.m. Ticket sales will benefit Friends of Literacy, a Knoxville nonprofit offering free reading and literacy programs to children, families and adults.
In addition to the living honorees, Bob Burch, Adolph Ochs and William B. Scott will be inducted posthumously for journalism, and Harvey Broome for nonfiction.
Knoxville native Summer Awad, a graduate student at Iowa State University pursuing a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and Environment, will be honored with the Hall of Fame’s Emerging Writer Award.
Tickets to the awards gala are available at www.etwriters.org through April 4 and cost $100 each or $750 for a table of eight.
Attendees will be treated to performances by Marilyn Kallet, a former Knoxville poet laureate; musicians Sarah Pirkle and Karen E. Reynolds; humor writer Sam Venable; and fiction writer Charles Dodd White. Frank Murphy will emcee.
Award sponsors include 21st Mortgage, KnoxNews, KPMG, KUB, LHP Capital, Pellissippi State Foundation, Ponce Metals, and WUOT. Event sponsors are Frank & Friends Show, John Becker Photography, and Union Ave Books.
