The project Declaration: I Am Tennessee was created to celebrate the United States’ 250th anniversary. In this gathering of poems and short prose, 30 Knox County writers explore how Tennessee has shaped them. Initiated by Knoxville’s poet laureate, Linda Parsons, the Knoxville Writers Guild has partnered with the East Tennessee Historical Society to uplift these varied voices as a record of being in their place at this time, with all of its rolling green beauty, and equally of wrestling with the complexities of that place.

The featured launch writers are Mary Pom Claiborne, Jan Loveday Dickens, Donna Doyle, Bethany Lemons, R.B. Morris, Linda Parsons, Nancy Brennan Strange (with songs), and Todd Steed.