Memphis-born storyteller Alice Faye Duncan has made it her life’s mission further the message of Martin Luther King Jr. through her transcendent work as a children’s author, educator, and librarian. Her recent picture books celebrate African American music as a source of joy and a form of resistance.
In their debut memoir-in-essays, Come by Here, Neesha Powell-Ingabire returns home to Georgia’s Geechee coast, unearthing regional histories while igniting a path to personal healing. Powell-Ingabire will appear at the 2024 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, October 26-27.
Renée Watson’s debut adult novel, skin & bones, is an adoring love letter to fat Black women. Watson will appear at the 2024 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, October 26-27.
Be Not Afraid of My Body: A Lyrical Memoir, the second book by Knoxville native Darius Stewart, takes readers on a journey of self-discovery as it unearths the complexities of his childhood and investigates life after addiction and health challenges, including an HIV diagnosis.
Sarai Johnson’s debut novel, Grown Women, is an eloquent story of multiple generations of Black women navigating their lives against a nonlinear backdrop of American motherhood.
Comprised of braided essays which use key pop-culture moments to weave together stories of triumph and personal exploration, Julian Randall’s The Dead Don’t Need Reminding unearths grief and deeply rooted family histories.
