Escaping into Life
Linda Gambill’s The Geography of Desire follows her youthful sojourn in The Gambia as a Peace Corps volunteer, an experience that taught her new ways to see the world and ultimately led her home to Tennessee.
Reclaiming Whitney
Holding Lightning: The Life, Loves, and Art of Whitney Houston by Vanderbilt professor Emily Lordi stands as a reclamation of Houston’s story, placing her at the center not as an object but as the subject. Emily Lordi will appear at the 2026 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville on October 17-18.
A Love Letter to Nashville
In her new thriller, Indie Darling, Nashville author Lauren Nossett plumbs a dark side of Music City. Told from the perspective of a badass female private detective investigating the disappearance of a popular singer-songwriter, the story is rife with plot twists, parallel mysteries, and Dolly Parton songs. Nossett will appear at a book launch party at The Sun Room in Nashville on July 27 and at the 2026 Southern Festival of Books on October 17-18.
Strange Trip
Leslie Baird’s debut novel, Salomé, offers a genre-defying tale: a bildungsroman wrapped in layers of intrigue, gothic mysticism, and a reimagined classic femme fatale. Set in the quiet French village of Châteaubriant, it’s a mind-bendingly good read. Leslie Baird will discuss the book at The Lipstick Lounge in Nashville on May 26 at 6 p.m.
Under an Imposing Shadow
In her debut novel, Mercy Hill, Hannah Thurman brings a sharp, attentive sensibility to a story of complex family dynamics, control, and the aftermath of a highly pressurized childhood.
Art in the Face of Erasure
Carolyn Newton’s second novel, Songs of the Dead Road, follows a Polish pianist whose life is shaped by wartime loss, Soviet labor camps, and the enduring power of music. The novel explores how memory and art bear witness to histories the world would rather forget.
