The Friends of the Knox County Public Library and the Library Society of the University of Tennessee will host novelist Amy Greene at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 23, at the East Tennessee History Center. Greene will present the 2017 Wilma Dykeman Stokely Memorial Lecture.

Greene was born and raised in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains and she began writing stories about the people of Appalachia from a very young age.

Her debut novel, “Bloodroot” (2010), was named among Booklist’s Top 10 Debut Novels and received the Weatherford Award for fiction from the Appalachian Studies Association. In her latest novel, “Long Man” (2014), the TVA has dammed the Long Man River, and as the river rises, Annie Clyde Dodson’s three-year-old daughter disappears.

Greene will speak about her writing process and what gives character to her Appalachian novels at the lecture. Union Avenue Books will sell copies of her books on site and Greene will be available to sign items.

The Friends of the Knox County Public Library established the Wilma Dykeman Stokely Memorial Lecture in 2007 to honor the late writer, speaker, teacher, historian, environmentalist and friend of local libraries. This is the fourth consecutive year that the Friends of the Knox County Public Library and the UT Library Society have co-sponsored the lecture.