...October 2-4, Metro Pulse will be a sponsor of the Southern Writers Festival to be held at UT. This year's honoree is George Garrett, and dozens of major Southern writers will be in attendance. In conjunction with the festival, next week's issue of MP will be dedicated to local writers and will feature short stories, novel excerpts, and poetry from some of our area's most talented writers...

...Beginning tomorrow night, MP will sponsor Knox Word Productions' and the Actors Co-op's Spoken Word Showcase featuring Daniel Roop, John Kilpatrick, Julia Nance and Seed Lynn...

...While not a Metro Pulse project per se, we have recently entered into an agreement to publish a Knoxville music anthology to be called, Cumberland Avenue Revisited�Forty Years of Music in Knoxville, Tennessee. This book includes vignettes on everyone from The Amazing Rhythm Aces to Smokin' Dave and the Premo Dopes, from Clifford Curry to Rus Harper, from Rich Mountain Tower to R.B. Morris...

...Another publishing project MP has signed onto is an anthology featuring local writers and poets to be published next year. Dennis McCarthy (Cormac's brother) has agreed to serve as chief editor on the project. Judy Loest, Brian Griffin and Marilyn Kallet are also involved. Look for this book in stores before Christmas of '04...

...Next spring, Metro Pulse is proud to sponsor the Coal Creek Project from Actors Co-op. This play will be the Co-op's first original production. Written by Alan Gratz, it will recount the Fraterville (now Briceville, Tennessee) mine explosion that occurred in 1902, which claimed the lives of nearly 200 miners. Featuring original bluegrass compositions by Sarah Pirkle and Jeff Barbra...

...Metro Pulse has recently announced its intention to endow two new scholarships in Creative Writing. Both scholarships will be awarded annually by the English Department to deserving students...
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Worthy projects and causes, all. Kudos y'all. And the issue itself looks pretty good. 'Cept for that cruddy Gamut from that McNutt character, naturally...