Don’t miss this special chance to have dinner with award-winning author Margaret Renkl and acclaimed graphic designer/illustrator Billy Renkl.
The siblings and collaborators are keynote speakers for the opening banquet of the 2025 Clarksville Writers Conference, hosted by the Clarksville Arts & Heritage Council (AHC), on Thursday, June 5. The banquet will begin at 5:30pm with a “Meet the Authors” reception and book signing, followed by dinner and the keynote address at 6:30pm. Held in F&M Bank’s Franklin Room (50 Franklin Street), the dinner offers delicious food from Nicoletta’s and spectacular views of the sunset over the Cumberland River in addition to a conversation with Margaret and Billy Renkl.
Tickets will be on sale through May 29 and are $45 for AHC members and $55 for nonmembers. Purchase tickets online at https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/NVBBRK2GUEXA4. To pay by check, email [email protected] to reserve your spot, and send a check made payable to the Clarksville Arts & Heritage Council to P.O. Box 555, Clarksville TN 37041.
Margaret Renkl is this year’s recipient of the Patricia Winn Award for Southern Literature, named for the conference’s founder. She is the author of Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss (2019), Graceland, at Last: Notes on Hope and Heartache From the American South (2021), and The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year (2023), which won the 2024 Southern Book Prize. Her fourth book, Leaf, Cloud, Crow: A Weekly Backyard Journal (2024), is a companion to The Comfort of Crows that offers 52 writing prompts and plentiful advice for studying the natural world. Renkl is contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, where her essays appear each Monday.
Gorgeously illustrated by the author’s brother, Billy Renkl, Late Migrations won the 2020 Reed Award for Environmental Writing and was A TODAY Show #ReadWithJenna Book Club Pick. Billy Renkl’s work has been featured in many solo and group exhibitions, including solo shows at The Foley Gallery (3-person, New York City), Taylor/Bercier Gallery (New Orleans), and the Galerie Neue Raume (Berlin, Germany). In addition to gallery exhibitions, Renkl has worked with many clients on illustration assignments, including The New York Times, SouthWest Airlines, How Magazine, Klutz Inc., Strategy & Business, and Rigby Publishing.
The Comfort of Crows is Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club’s 100th pick. Margaret Renkl, who taught Witherspoon in high school, is one of the key reasons Witherspoon fell in love with reading, so it feels like a full circle moment that the actress is welcoming Margaret as an author for the 100th Book Pick.
With 52 original color artworks by Billy Renkl, The Comfort of Crows is a lovely and deeply moving book from a cherished observer of the natural world. The pair are currently working together on a children’s book about taking advantage of all the natural world has to offer.
Those interested in attending day sessions of the Clarksville Writers Conference can find more information at clarksvillewritersconference.com.