August 11, 2015 Perhaps the most striking feature of Appalachia Now: Short Stories of Contemporary Appalachia, a new anthology edited by Larry Smith and Knoxville writer Charles Dodd White, is the sheer variety of characters found in it. The people in these stories fight against preconceived types and offer a rich, bold picture of an Appalachia that defies categorization.
August 10, 2015 In the late 1980s, when New Yorker writer William Finnegan started filing dispatches from the hottest conflict zones in the world, few readers could have guessed that the seasoned war correspondent had honed his reportorial skills by travelling the globe in search of the perfect wave. Finnegan will read from his new memoir, Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life, at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 9-11, 2015. All festival events are free and open to the public.
August 7, 2015 Azar Nafisi is a devout believer, to put it mildly, in the transformative power of literature. In her 2003 bestseller, Reading Lolita in Tehran, books are a spiritual lifeline amid the horrific violence and repression of post-revolutionary Iran. In The Republic of Imagination: A Life in Books she considers whether they can serve a similarly critical purpose here. Nafisi will appear at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 9-11, 2015. All festival events are free and open to the public.
August 5, 2015 First-time novelist James E. McTeer II chronicles a fantastic journey into the heart of darkness—and wonder—in Minnow. McTeer will discuss the novel at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 9-11, 2015. All festival events are free and open to the public.
August 4, 2015 What happens when a gay editor in his fifties leaves New York City to care for his ninety-year-old mother in the dying town of Paris, Missouri? In George Hodgman’s elegant memoir, Bettyville, the result is humor, a monumental battle of wills, and a moving reflection on the meaning of family. Hodgman will discuss Bettyville at the twenty-seventh annual Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 9-11, 2015. All festival events are free and open to the public.
August 3, 2015 There are some people for whom society’s rules are a very poor fit. Beryl Markham, the first woman to fly solo from England to North America, was one of them. In Circling the Sun, Paula McLain paints the life of an iconoclastic woman who found the social order far more perplexing than the natural world she adored. McLain will appear at the Nashville Public Library on August 4, 2015, at 6:15 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.
