Ron Rash’s In the Valley displays his masterful command of short fiction
From haunting, short-form meditations on loss to a thrilling, suspenseful novella that revives an indelible antihero, In the Valley offers a distillation of Ron Rash’s storytelling mastery at its best. Rash will discuss In the Valley at a virtual event hosted by Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on August 18 and at the 2020 Southern Festival of Books, held online Oct. 1-11.
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Jill McCorkle’s Hieroglyphics explores the intricate passages of memory, time, and love
“We are all haunted by something — something we did or didn’t do — and the passing years either add to the weight or diminish it.” Those are the words of Lil, the loving but wounded woman at the heart of Jill McCorkle’s new novel, Hieroglyphics. The tormenting power of memory, and conflicting desires to escape and interrogate the past, shape the lives of all the characters in this poignant, deeply human story. Jill McCorkle will discuss Hieroglyphics at a virtual event hosted by Parnassus Books in Nashville on August 10.
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Three Appalachian women tell their stories in Voices Worth the Listening
Thomas Burton’s Voices Worth the Listening: Three Women of Appalachia invites readers into the lives of three women from the Blue Ridge Mountains, allowing them to tell their unique stories of struggle and resilience.
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Matthew Baker toys with storytelling conventions in Why Visit America
Matthew Baker’s second story collection, Why Visit America, explores and cross-breeds multiple genres, upending readers’ expectations through alienated characters, fierce conflicts, and surreal settings.
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A Nashville journalist maps a Syrian-American restaurateur’s moving journey to Hendersonville
By turns heartbreaking and inspiring, Jordan Ritter Conn’s The Road from Raqqa recounts in vivid detail the triumphs and grim realities of a Syrian immigrant, Riyad Alkasem, struggling to make a new life in the U.S. while trying to maintain family bonds across the world. Conn will appear with Riyad Alkasem at the 2020 Southern Festival of Books, held online October 1-11.
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Poet Natasha Trethewey’s memoir revisits her Mississippi childhood and her mother’s violent death
In Memorial Drive: A Daughter’s Memoir, former U.S. Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner Natasha Trethewey returns to the love and pain of her childhood and the trauma of her mother’s murder. Trethewey will appear at the 2020 Southern Festival of Books, held online October 1-11.
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