A life with pets forms the scaffolding of a new memoir by columnist Rheta Grimsley Johnson
May 6, 2016 Syndicated columnist Rheta Grimsley Johnson will talk about The Dogs Buried Over the Bridge: A Memoir in Dog Years, at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis on May 10, 2016, at 6:30 p.m. and at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on May 15, 2016, at 2 p.m. The book chronicles Johnson’s loves, losses, and Mississippi home life by way of the dogs who shared the journey.
In two new poetry collections, Restoring the Narrative and Small Revolution, Jeff Hardin imagines a world with a little more room for imagination
May 5, 2016 “Quiet truths do not argue for their worth,” writes poet Jeff Hardin, who will read from his two latest volumes, Restoring the Narrative and Small Revolution, at Parnassus Books in Nashville on May 10, 2016, at 6:30 p.m. In a world where people go “deaf haranguing some agenda,” Hardin prefers “allowing / a little sway to what gets said or done.”
Novelist Lee Smith’s new memoir is a must-read for aspiring writers—and everyone else
May 4, 2016 With thirteen novels and four short-story collections to her credit, Lee Smith is virtually synonymous with Appalachian fiction. In her new memoir-in-essays, Dimestore, she takes readers with her on a tour of the places, people, and experiences that have shaped her life and her writing. Smith will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on May 11, 2016, at 6:30 p.m.
An unlikely trio of friends in Kate DiCamillo’s Raymie Nightingale search for trust and healing
May 3, 2016 In Raymie Nightingale, two-time Newbery medalist Kate DiCamillo returns to small-town Florida to explore the relationship among three very different girls, each struggling with a difficult personal story. DiCamillo will discuss her seventh novel at the Nashville Public Library on May 7, 2016, at 2 p.m. and at the Memphis Public Library on May 8, 2016, at 1:30 p.m.
A new essay collection from the University of Tennessee honors Jeff Daniel Marion, beloved Appalachian poet and teacher
April 28, 2016 Jeff Daniel Marion: Poet on the Holston celebrates the life and work of Appalachian poet Jeff Daniel Marion. Edited by Jesse Graves, Thomas Alan Holmes, and Ernest Lee, the anthology contains seventeen essays—including an autobiographical essay by Marion himself—an interview with the poet, and a detailed timeline of his life.
Shirletta J. Kinchen’s Black Power in the Bluff City explores the history of student activism in Memphis
April 27, 2016 Shirletta Kinchen’s Black Power in the Bluff City examines the way black youth in Memphis played a pivotal role in creating societal change, both before and after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lorraine Hotel in 1968. In the end, the struggle for equality became a children’s crusade, with high-school and college students leading the way.
