Jolene McIlwain’s Sidle Creek offers a vivid portrait of small-town Appalachia
In her debut story collection Sidle Creek, Jolene McIlwain fashions a world and characters as complicated as they are enduring. These stories let us come to know a small Appalachian community in Western Pennsylvania through its people, from hunters to diner workers to miners.
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Award-winning author Ruta Sepetys offers a guide to the craft of writing
Ruta Sepetys — the award-winning, bestselling, Nashville-based author of five young adult historical novels — offers guidance for novice as well as experienced writers in You: The Story.
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Celia Bell’s debut novel encompasses black magic, murder, and subterfuge in 17th-century France
Baroness Marie Catherine finds herself tangled in a web of lies, crossdressing, and back-alley dealings in Celia Bell’s gripping debut novel, The Disenchantment. Bell will discuss the book at Parnassus Books in Nashville on May 22.
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Matthew Vollmer’s memoir considers the mysteries of the living and the dead
Matthew Vollmer’s All of Us Together in the End contemplates the certainties of life and its mysteries – whether natural or supernatural. Vollmer will discuss the book at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on May 23 and The Bookshop in Nashville on May 24.
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Scott Gloden’s debut story collection delves into America’s identity dilemma
The Great American Everything received the C. Michael Curtis Short Story Book Prize, given annually to an emerging writer from a Southern state. Despite the expressly regional tag, the stories in Scott Gloden’s debut collection could be called new Americana.
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Teens work against the clock to save lives in a time-twisty murder mystery
Justin Warren, the protagonist of Lauren Thoman’s debut novel, I’ll Stop the World, finds himself in a bit of a pickle. It seems he’s suddenly time-traveled to the 1985 version of his hometown, where he has a week to solve a mystery and save his grandparents’ lives. Lauren Thoman will discuss her work at a “Birthing the Book” event hosted by The Porch in Nashville on May 11.
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