The KARL EDWARD WAGNER
Fall Fear and Fantasy Festival

Planning Dinner

Wagner aficionados believe some sort of recognition of Knoxville’s greatest horror writer is long overdue, and we intend to do conjure up a Wagner's Sabbat in his hometown.

Devotées residing in shadow-haunted Knoxville and dark pilgrims from cities and towns hundreds of miles distant, from Far Lands and Other Days, met this past October at the ancient and notorious Patrick Sullivan’s Saloon in Knoxville’s Old City. Aboutt thirteen connoiseurs of eldritch literature were in attendance, and the mood was optimistic that a more ambitious event can br organized here. Since this meeting I met with representatives at the University of Tennessee to discuss a joint effort on the part of an independent Wagner Festival Committee and UT library and bookstore personnel to host a horror literary event at UT with the work of Knoxville’s preeminent horror writer as centerpiece.

This Friday I will be meeting with a representative of Knoxville’s Horror Film Festival committee to discuss joining foreces with that group as well. The input of others, especially in the Knoxville area, will be very helpful More information as it beomes available.     ~ John Mayer

A Paranormal Vision: The Karl Edward Wagner Fall Fear and Fantasy Festival

Patrick Sullivan’s Salloon (drawn by myself, John Mayer), after the manner of Lee Brown Coye (more or less), for the upcoming anthology Hex Code and Others, by myself, edited by Henrik Harksen. In our youth this building and the others in Knoxville’s Old City were given over to a few poolhalls and black clubs – Cab Calloway played here (I got to seem him perform in Knoxville, at the Tennessee) – and a number of second-hand and junk shops where both Karl and I often bought old fantasy and horror books and magazines. There was also, in Big Don’s Bargain Barn, which is still there, a real skeleton in a real, antique coffin

Other Things to See and Do in Karlville

All within walking distance

Knoxville’s Marvelous Movie Palace
(an Acre of Seats, More Stars than there are in the Heavens. See the Mighty Wurlitzer organ rise from nether regions)

The Remarkable Bijou Theater

(Title structure of David Madden’s book of the same name. Some of the best acoustics of any theater, and the only full-drop theater remaining in the Southeastern US. Also the fourth oldest buillding in Knoxville - yes, it’s haunted - with a rich history. Needless to say, Knoxville tried to tear it down... )

And on the 18th

The S&W Cafeteria Open House
(One of Knoxville’s Few Art Deco treasures, in its heyday this opulent eatery gave the lie to the notion of cafeteria food as declassé; completely restored and as elegant as ever. Still finding their way cuisine wise, and the least veggie friendly place in town)

About Knoxville

Learn Knoxville’s Dark Secrets
Knoxville’s Secret Historian writes of the lobotomy of Tennessee WIlliam’s sister Rose (in Knoxville?), the world-famous Huddle (now the site of a comics and gaming shop Organized Play, it was once a bar made famous by Comac Macarthy and the inspiration for a German band, Buddy and the Huddle, and more)

Knoxville: the Literary Cliff Notes

Knoxville: Spawn of Evil
Much of this history of “The Invisible Empire of Soulless Men,” by Manly Wellman’s brother, Paul, takes place in early Knoxville

Places of Arcane Interest Nearby

The Body Farm

The Lost Sea

The Town of Rugby

More events and details soon