Program areas at Humanities Tennessee
Grants & awards Humanities tn makes funding investments in all three grand divisions of the state to support the efforts of cultural, educational, and community-based organizations providing public Humanities programs. The grant funds awarded to organizations are leveraged for additional community investment, including financial support and volunteer time. The organizers of these projects anticipate engaging more than one million people in Tennessee history, culture, arts, and more. In fy23, we awarded more than $150,000 to 27 organizations across the state through our general grants, opportunity grants, and sponsorships.
Chapter 16 in response to the loss of book coverage in newspapers around the state, Humanities Tennessee founded chapter16.org in 2009 to provide comprehensive coverage of literary news and events in Tennessee. Each weekday the site posts fresh content that focuses on author events across the state and new releases from Tennessee authors. In addition, chapter 16 maintains partnerships with newspapers in each major media market statewide, and our content appears in print each week through the memphis commercial appeal, the nashville scene, and the knoxville news sentinel. Through the site, social media, a weekly newsletter, and our newspaper partnerships, chapter 16 reaches more than half a million readers on a good week. The outcome is the ongoing visibility of the Tennessee literary community in newspapers statewide, the support to Tennessee writers and independent bookstores via promotion of books and events, and an ever-growing archive of original content. In fy23, we founded the Humanities Tennessee fellowship in criticism with the goal of finding and helping to promote Tennessee writers with an interest in criticism. We were pleased to receive 18 applicants from across Tennessee, and ultimately awarded the fellowship to freelance writer and librarian kashif andrew graham.
Southern festival of books since 1989, the southern festival of books: a celebration of the written word has welcomed authors and readers to downtown nashville for a weekend of readings, signings, performances, and celebration. The mission of the festival has always been to provide a free, easily accessible event that provides access to anyone with an interest in reading in an environment that is rich in culture in conversation, inclusive, respectful, and encouraging of lifelong learning. The 34th annual southern festival of books was held october 14-16, 2022, at nashville public library and war memorial plaza and featured more than 175 authors.