The work of photographers George Masa and Jim Thompson documented the unique beauty of the Smokies and played a significant role in the creation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Land of Everlasting Hills by Ren and Helen Davis collects more than 200 of Masa and Thompson’s photographs and includes biographies of both men, as well as a history of the park’s creation.
The 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, known as the “Six Triple Eight,” was a predominantly Black unit in the U.S. Women’s Army Corps (WAC) during World War II. Tonya Abari tells their heroic but underappreciated story in her latest picture book, The Six Triple Eight.
Be Gay, Do Crime surveys the long history of queer defiance and resilience through a daily catalog of notable events and key figures. Zane McNeill, one of the book’s editors, answered questions from Chapter 16 about the research challenges of the project and how queer history can help the community hold on to joy.
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.
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.
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.
