Join us Sunday, November 17th @ 2pm for a reading with local journalist Sam Venable for his new book The Joke's on You: All I Did Was Clean Out My Files.

About the Book

John Adams presents details from the new book in a News Sentinel article. 

'An example of the jokes compiled in his latest book: “Everything is a matter of perspective. Once, I entered a contest with only one other person. I came in second. That made me feel awful ’till it dawned on me the other guy finished second to last.”

Another example: “Miss Illa, the Sunday school teacher, asked little Freddie if his family said prayers before every meal.

"'No need to,' he replied. ‘My mom’s a good cook.’”

The jokes are funny and plentiful. But if you have ever read Sam’s column or another one of his books, you know he doesn’t need a joke book to make you laugh.'

About the Author

Sam Venable is a humor columnist for the Knoxville (TN) News Sentinel. He assumed that position in 1985 after serving as the newspaper’s outdoors editor for fifteen years. In September 2014, he retired from daily duties at the News Sentinel but continues to write a Sunday column for the Features section.

Sam is a native of Knoxville. He is a 1969 graduate of the University of Tennessee with a B.S. in journalism. Prior to joining the News Sentinel’s staff, he worked as a police reporter and feature writer for the Knoxville Journal and the Chattanooga News-Free Press. Sam is a member of the East Tennessee Writers Hall of Fame (Class of 2009) and Tennessee Journalism Hall of Fame (Class of 2014). Winner of more than three dozen state, regional and national writing awards, Sam has been widely published outside the newspaper field. He sold his first magazine article as a senior in college and since has compiled more than 150 periodical credits to his record, as well as being a Pulitzer Prize nominee.