Editor's Note
We’re excited to feature some of this year’s Southern Festival of Books authors in our upcoming schedule, including an interview with John T. Edge about his memoir House of Smoke; a review of Blood Harmony, Barry Mazor’s biography of the Everly Brothers; and an excerpt from Feller, the new poetry collection from Tennessee Book Award winner Denton Loving.
Of course, there’s considerable festival coverage already on the site. In June, for example, we published an excerpt from Serina Gilbert and Learotha Williams’ From the Fiery Furnace to the Promise Land, an account of the Dickson County community founded by formerly enslaved Tennesseans after the Civil War. In February, Jane Marcellus reviewed Elaine
Today at the site we’re revisiting a recent piece featuring festival author Dr. Yolanda Pierce, dean of Vanderbilt Divinity School. David Dark interviewed her in March about The Wounds Are the Witness: Black Faith Weaving Memory into Justice and Healing. In new coverage, Tina Chambers reviews The Curious Calling of Leonard Bush, the latest novel by Susan Gregg Gilmore, and Erica Wright reviews Meg Waite Clayton’s novel of 1950s Hollywood, Typewriter Beach. Both novelists will — you guessed it — appear at this year’s festival.
News Roundup
- Major Jackson celebrated the power of a humble bowl of soup in The New York Times.
- Denton Loving discussed his new collection, Feller, with Bradley Sides in Electric Literature, and a poem from the book was featured at Verse Daily.
- Alan Gratz was interviewed for Publishers Weekly.
- An excerpt from Austin Sauerbrei’s Trouble! at Coal Creek appeared in Scalawag.
- Jamie Quatro’s novel Two-Step Devil was reviewed for America Magazine.
- Beyond Terabithia, an essay collection by award-winning children’s author Katherine Paterson, will be published in 2027 and a new novel by Erin A. Craig will appear in fall 2026, according to Publishers Weekly.
