Book Reviews

In Operation Dimwit, the second Penelope Lemon novel from Tennessee native Inman Majors, our plucky protagonist must stare down a suspicious cat, trap a trained skunk, and resist the intimidations of a weirdly competitive gym trainer.

By delving into intimate moments of her characters’ lives, Johnson City writer Shuly Xóchitl Cawood taps a deep well of compassion in her story collection, A Small Thing to Want.

Lost Delta Found, edited by Robert Gordon and Bruce Nemerov, uncovers a long-lost account of the lives and music of African Americans in the Mississippi Delta region.

In What Is the Grass: Walt Whitman in My Life, celebrated poet and memoirist Mark Doty explores the life and prophetic influence of Walt Whitman. 

In a powerful collection of essays, MTSU professor Fred Arroyo remembers his immigrant father and considers his own evolution as a writer.

The latest offering from iconic Southern writer Lee Smith is Blue Marlin, a sweet and funny novella loosely based on her family. Smith says in an afterword, “Of all the stories I’ve ever written, this one is dearest to me, capturing the essence of my own childhood.”