A Writer's Guide to Knoxville: Libraries, Bookstores, Writing Groups, and Presses

Lawson McGhee is the main library of the Knox County system. Its free lower-level meeting room holds up to 69 people and has a display and lectern; book it online. The Memory Lab digitizes tapes and home movies, and the Rothrock Used Book Store sells secondhand books in the building.

The McClung Collection is Knox County Public Library's regional history and genealogy collection, on the third floor of the East Tennessee History Center. It is open daily. The Tennessee Archive of Moving Image and Sound shares the building and sees researchers by appointment only.

Hodges is UT's main library, and community members can use its collections. Non-affiliates who want to borrow can buy a donor card with photo ID. Reserve a study room in the second-floor Commons up to two weeks ahead, or work in the quiet Miles Reading Room on the first floor. The Graduate Commons has a room for dissertation defenses.

Special Collections holds the University Archives, Manuscript Archives, Rare Books, and Modern Political Archives. Visiting researchers and the public are welcome.

Union Ave Books is downtown's general independent bookstore, owned by the mother-daughter team Bunnie and Flossie. Authors come in for conversations often, and the store holds a poetry night on the first Friday of each month. Local authors can place their books here on consignment. It is open daily.

Addison's sells used books alongside rare and antiquarian editions. Book clubs and workshops meet here, and writers can rent the space for literary events and meetings. It is closed Mondays.

Sociologist Dr. Enkeshi El-Amin founded The Bottom, a nonprofit, Black-affirming bookshop that calls itself a writing space for writers, artists, and activists. Its Banned Book Club takes its reading list from titles the Knox County School Board banned. The shop is closed Sundays and Mondays.

Fable Hollow, a fantasy-themed bookstore with a coffee bar, opened in 2023. It stocks fantasy and sci-fi alongside young adult fiction. Poets can read at its open mic nights, and live Dungeons & Dragons campaigns run here too.

Anaika Anderson opened Mis Amores as a romance-only bookstore and café. Its shelves focus on romance that centers characters from marginalized communities, and the café serves specialty coffee and small dishes. Authors celebrate book releases here.

Rayanne Streeter and Lauren Morrill own Good Girl Books, a shop for romance and romantasy. It runs Silent Book Clubs at local breweries.

Mahalo roasts its own coffee and runs this downtown café next door to Union Ave Books.

Coffee & Chocolate on Market Square opens early and stays open into the evening every day. Come here after dinner.

Remedy is a multi-roaster specialty coffee shop beside Old Gray Cemetery. Beans from Methodical and Rowan are among those it pours.

The Tomato Head has served pizza and sandwiches on Market Square since 1990. Each month it mounts an exhibit by local painters or photographers. Musicians and poets have performed here since it opened.

Maker Exchange is on World's Fair Park, with a coffee shop that opens early every day and a tavern that serves dinner nightly. The Curio, a retail display inside, sells sculpture, jewelry, and ceramics by Knoxville makers.

The Knoxville Writers' Guild is a membership organization for Knoxville writers. It runs monthly programs and quarterly craft workshops, and its members form writing groups. The Guild also holds readings and publishes Re|View. Adult and youth/student memberships are available.

Sundress Publications founded the Sundress Academy for the Arts in 2013 on Firefly Farms, a 45-acre farm in Tobby Hollow about 20 minutes from downtown Knoxville. Writers in any genre, academic writing included, come for short-term residencies. The academy also runs manuscript retreats and the Sundress Workshop Series.

The UT English Department brings poets and fiction writers to campus for readings open to the public. Visiting writers often appear at schools and community sites as well. Mary Oliver and Jesmyn Ward are among its past readers.

The Arts & Culture Alliance serves artists across the region from the Emporium Center downtown. Individual members appear in its directory, and its weekly newsletter carries events and artist calls. The Alliance also administers the Knoxville Poet Laureate program.

The Denbo Center is UT's humanities center. Its full-year faculty research fellowships come with release time and office space for book and digital projects. PhD students in its affiliated departments can apply for dissertation fellowships. It also hosts the Chandler Seminars with visiting scholars.

The Marco Institute funds faculty and graduate research in premodern studies. Its Lindsay Young Visiting Regional Faculty Fellowship is open to faculty at other institutions in the region. Scholars can join language reading groups or work in the Riggsby Library and Reading Room.

Newfound Press is the UT Libraries' digital imprint. It works with authors to publish scholarship and artistic work in new formats, aiming for worldwide availability at reasonable cost.

Humanities Tennessee is the state humanities council, based in Nashville. It gives general and opportunity grants and runs the Tennessee Book Award.

The University of Tennessee Press publishes scholarly and regional books in Appalachian studies and in Tennessee and Southern history. Its list also takes in civil rights and African American history, as well as music.

Sundress Publications is an independent literary press that publishes chapbooks and full-length books in print and digital formats. It runs online journals, Rogue Agent and Doubleback Review among them, and hosts the Best of the Net Anthology. Sundress also founded the Sundress Academy for the Arts.

Issues in Mental Health Nursing publishes clinical research on mental health nursing care for clients of all ages, along with theoretical papers on mental health promotion and public policy. Its editor, Sandra P. Thomas, is at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, College of Nursing. Preparing an article for Issues in Mental Health Nursing

The Tennessee Arts Commission gives this fellowship to professional practicing artists who have lived in Tennessee for the past three years. Its literary categories cover fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and children's/young adult literature. Full-time students are ineligible, though state-supported faculty may apply.

The Arts & Culture Alliance runs these grants with funding from Ann and Steve Bailey. They support individual artists and small arts groups living within 50 miles of downtown Knoxville whose work is presented or published in Knox County. Applicants must be Alliance members. Full-time degree students cannot apply.

The City of Knoxville and the Arts & Culture Alliance name a poet laureate to serve as a public voice for the city. The laureate writes Knoxville-specific works and leads readings and workshops. The term is one year, renewable once.

The Guild holds writing contests, among them a short fiction contest and a Tennessee-themed contest. It posts the winners on its site.

Editors For Students keeps a guide to grants and writing resources for students at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

UT's School of Art runs this letterpress studio, which has two Vandercooks, a Potter proof press, Kelsey platens, and ten cabinets of wood and metal type. UTK students, faculty, and staff from any department can use it for a per-project lab fee. Book online.

Pioneer House is a letterpress studio and shop. It prints posters and cards on site, along with journals and signs, and keeps an art gallery.