J. Nicole Jones conjures her South Carolina family’s storied past in Low Country
Richly detailed and atmospheric, Nashville writer J. Nicole Jones’ memoir, Low Country, tells the multi-generational story of Jones’ family but does so by hybridizing that narrative with an ecosystem of history, folklore, and ghost stories long associated with South Carolina’s swamps, beaches, and pine forests.
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A girl’s quest to save her sister heats up Ellie Cypher’s debut YA thriller
The Girl from Shadow Springs, the debut YA novel by East Tennessee writer Ellie Cypher, depicts a young woman’s struggle against a brutal environment as she tries to save her kidnapped sister.
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Hell on the Border continues the true story of a larger-than-life lawman
Sidney Thompson’s Hell on the Border, the second novel in a planned trilogy, continues the historical tale of Bass Reeves, an enslaved Arkansan who became a legendary frontier lawman. Thompson will discuss the book at a virtual event hosted by Novel in Memphis on April 17.
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In C Pam Zhang’s debut novel, orphaned siblings struggle to survive in the unforgiving American West
In C Pam Zhang’s debut novel, How Much of These Hills Is Gold, Lucy and Sam, orphaned siblings of Chinese laborers, fend for themselves in the barren hills of the American West in the aftermath of the gold rush. Zhang will discuss the book at a virtual event hosted by Parnassus Books on April 12.
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Clay McLeod Chapman’s Whisper Down the Lane is a tale of genuine terror
In Whisper Down the Lane, Clay McLeod Chapman reimagines the McMartin preschool trials and the “satanic panic” era of the 1980s. Chapman will discuss the book at a virtual event hosted by Novel in Memphis on April 8.
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In his debut novel, Dennis McCarthy imagines an alternate fate for history’s most notorious gunslinger
“So here’s the gospel story. Gospel as I know it anyway. Memory’s a funny thing. It’ll fool you.” Thus begins Dennis McCarthy’s reimagining of the legend of Henry McCarty, aka William H. Bonney, aka William Roberts, aka Billy the Kid. The Gospel According to Billy the Kid is at once an unromantic account of the violence and lawlessness of the late 19th-century West and a rollicking good yarn.
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