Yaa Gyasi’s debut novel, Homegoing, follows the story of two half-sisters born in Ghana in the late-eighteenth century. Effia becomes the “African wife” of a British colonial governor, while Esi is captured by a rival tribe and sold into slavery. Gyasi will appear at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 14-16, 2016.
Meredith Russo’s powerful YA novel, If I Was Your Girl, is extraordinary not because of the events it depicts but because of its point of view: that of an emotionally fragile transgender teen struggling to survive the ruthless world of high school. Russo will appear at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 14-16, 2016.
In his debut novel, The Grand Tour, Adam O’ Fallon Price sends the world’s most dysfunctional writer and his greatest (and only) fan on a book tour that is both heartbreaking and hilarious. A former Knoxville resident, Price will appear at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on August 17, 2016, at 6 p.m.
In Jay McInerney’s Bright, Precious Days, Russell and Corrine’s marriage encounters as much turbulence as the post-9/11 era in which they are living. Jay McInerney will discuss Bright, Precious Days at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 14-16, 2016. All festival events are free and open to the public.
Nashville poet Kendra DeColo’s new collection My Dinner with Ron Jeremy explores matters of the heart and groin in equal measure, presenting a collection that is at turns playful, dark, and odd, with a lyricism that belies the sometimes garish subject matter.
Gail Lumet Buckley, daughter of Lena Horne, tells her family’s story from emancipation through the civil-rights era in The Black Calhouns. This sharply epic family saga is interwoven with the history of black American intellectuals and their movements for racial justice. Buckley will appear at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 14-16, 2016. All festival events are free and open to the public.
