The Mystery of Creativity
September 16, 2013 A prolific children’s author and illustrator with more than thirty books to his credit, Kevin Henkes has proven incredibly adept at making the tricky transition between picture books and novels for young readers. His newest chapter book, The Year of Billy Miller, is a sweet and savvy story told from the point of view of a seven-year-old boy. Henkes will appear at the twenty-fifth annual Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 11-13. All festival events are free and open to the public.
August 29, 2013 Since the publication of his first novel, Raney, in 1985, Clyde Edgerton has been among the South’s most admired comic novelists. With Papadaddy’s Book for New Fathers, Edgerton turns his dry wit toward the art of fatherhood, with unsurprisingly sidesplitting results. Clyde Edgerton will appear at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 11-13, 2013. All festival events are free and open to the public.
August 26, 2013 Jonathan Tropper’s six novels address a fundamental question: when life doesn’t turn out as you planned, what do you do next? Despite the catastrophes Tropper’s characters encounter, his books are fun, knee-slapping, tear-inducing comedies that provide a guide for surviving calamity and discovering what lies on the other side. Tropper talks with Chapter 16 prior to his appearance at the twenty-fifth annual 
August 8, 2013 The Body Farm, a two-acre plot of land in Knoxville, was founded by University of Tennessee anthropologist Bill Bass over a quarter century ago. It is now renowned as the hub of some of the most important forensic science ever done. Since 2003, Bass and writer Jon Jefferson have collaborated on two nonfiction books about Bass’s work, as well as a series of mystery novels featuring Bass’s alter-ego, Bill Brockton, which they write under the pseudonym Jefferson Bass. Jon Jefferson and Bill Bass will discuss the newest Body Farm novel at the twenty-fifth annual 
August 7, 2013 Art teacher and Nashville resident Jessica Young’s debut picture book for children encourages young readers to look at familiar colors in a new way, urging them to define the world around them according to their own experience. Young will discuss My Blue is Happy at Parnassus Books on August 13, 2013, at 6:30 p.m., and at the twenty-fifth annual 
July 31, 2013 During the late sixteenth century, the city of Nuremberg was a bustling commercial metropolis at the heart of the Holy Roman Empire. As one of the first cities to convert to Lutheranism in the 1520s, it was also on the front lines of the Reformation. In The Faithful Executioner: Life and Death, Honor and Shame in the Turbulent Sixteenth Century, Vanderbilt historian Joel Harrington considers this world as it is revealed in the extensive diary of Frantz Schmidt, the city’s public executioner for more than forty years. Harrington will appear at the twenty-fifth annual 
