FOL will sponsor a poetry reading with local authors in celebration of April being National Poetry Month on April 30, 10-4 in the Oak Ridge Library Auditorium. In addition, to the reading, the local poets will sign and sell their books. The event features 12 local authors, including Oak Ridge’s Poet Laureate – Erin Elizabeth Smith and Knoxville’s Poet Laureate – Rhea Carmon. The authors will read from their work according to three time slots as follows. The public is invited to come listen to the readings and talk with the authors.
| 10:00am-12:00pm | Connie Jordan Green, Sue Weaver Dunlap, and Sarah Pross, Wes Sims. |
| 12:00pm-2:00pm | Devan Burton, Erin Elizabeth Smith, Carol Grametbauer, John C. Mannone. |
| 2:00pm-4:00pm | Claudia M. Stanek, Rhea “RheaSunshine” Carmon, Sylvia Woods, Fay Martin. |
Oak Ridge’s new Poet Laureate Erin Elizabeth Smith will read during the 12-2 time frame. Erin is the Executive Director for Sundress Publications and the Sundress Academy for the Arts. She is the author of three full-length collections of poetry, most recently DOWN (SFASU 2020), and her work has appeared in Guernica, Ecotone, Crab Orchard, and Mid-American, among others. Smith is a Distinguished Lecturer in the English Department at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.