The inaugural Memphis Literary Arts Festival will begin June 15 with a ticketed benefit, “Dinner at the Hibiscus Salon,” and continues from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on June 16 with a series of talks, readings, and performances by writers, musicians, and artists from across the country. An after-party with DJ Siphne Aaye will begin at 7:30 p.m. June 16.
Thirteen, Jerry Joyner’s 1975 collaboration with artist Remy Charlip, returns to shelves this month in a new edition for a new generation of young readers. Joyner will visit Parnassus Books on May 23 to discuss the book, as well as his remarkable career.
Taylor Branch is a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and author of The King Years, a selection of excerpts from his trilogy on the civil-rights movement. Branch will deliver the keynote address of the MLK50 symposium at the University of Memphis Holiday Inn on April 3.
On February 27, the Center for Southern Literary Arts in Memphis will bring novelist Tayari Jones to the stage of the Halloran Centre for Performing Arts to talk about her new book, An American Marriage.
For James P. Carse, people are never not playing in one way or another. How we play—the expectations we bring and the invitations we are open to from moment to moment—is the whole human deal. Carse will give a free public address at Belmont University in Nashville on February 8 as part of Belmont’s Faith and Culture Symposium. The event is free and open to the public.
On March 28, 2016, Jim Ridley collapsed in his office at the Nashville Scene. His heart had failed. For days after his death, you could search the national trending topics on Twitter and find the name Jim Ridley there alongside the likes of Star Wars and Bruce Springsteen. In June 2018, Vanderbilt University Press will bring out a collection of Ridley’s film reviews edited by Steve Haruch.
