An American Literary Life
The Literary Legacy of Jimmy Carter, an essay anthology edited by Mark I. West and Frye Gaillard, surveys Carter’s large body of writing and considers what it reveals about the man from Plains, Georgia.
Straight on ‘til Morning
In the summer of 1981, a group of young people from the U.S. and Germany launched a homemade raft on the Missouri River near Kansas City, determined to float all the way to New Orleans. Nashvillian Justus Wayne Thomas documented the trip with his camera, and his striking photographs of the crew and the landscape they journeyed through are collected in The River Wil Be a Part of Us.
The Bewilderment of Memory
Jill McCorkle’s new story collection resonates with sympathy for characters struggling to make peace with themselves and those they love. McCorkle will appear at the 2024 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, October 26-27.
The Whole Truth
When novelist Jill Ciment was 17, she began a relationship with her art teacher, a married man 30 years her senior. Their love affair became a marriage that lasted until her husband’s death more than four decades later. Ciment wrote about their romance in her 1996 memoir, Half a Life. In a new book, Consent, Ciment reconsiders their story. Ciment will discuss the book with Ann Patchett at Parnassus Books in Nashville on June 27.
Obsessed with Understanding
FROM THE CHAPTER 16 ARCHIVE: The child of Chinese immigrants, Jenny Qi entered Vanderbilt at 16, lost her mother while she was still an undergraduate, and went on to earn a Ph.D. in biomedical science while pouring her grief into poetry. Her award-winning debut collection, Focal Point, explores sorrow, death, and what we owe to each other.
Taking Real Action
In his books Strong Inside, Singled Out, and Inaugural Ballers, Andrew Maraniss explored the intersection of sports, identity, and social justice. Now he’s bringing those themes to Beyond the Game: Athletes Change the World, a new series of biographies for young readers. Maraniss will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on March 5.
