Editor's Note
The dates for the 2026 Southern Festival of Books have been announced. Make plans to be at the Bicentennial Mall, Tennessee State Museum, and Tennessee State Library and Archives in Nashville on October 17 & 18 for this beloved literary gathering. Author submissions are open through May 31. The initial lineup will be announced this summer, and you can be sure to hear about it first by signing up for the festival newsletter. You can also follow the festival on Instagram and Facebook. Hope we’ll see you there.
Today at Chapter 16, David Wesley Williams reviews When It’s Darkness on the Delta: How America’s Richest Soil Became Its Poorest Land by W. Ralph Eubanks. David describes the book as “a long, sober walk into a place where wealth was won on the backs of a subjugated race, in a state where the law was wielded like a weapon, in a country where all men were supposedly created equal.” Sean Kinch reviews Jeremy B. Jones’ Cipher: Decoding My Ancestor’s Scandalous Secret Diaries, in which troubling family history intersects with the ugliest aspects of America’s past. Kashif Andrew Graham completes our trio of reviews this week with his take on Brandon Taylor’s Minor Black Figures, a novel that puts ideas about God at the center of the conversation.
News Roundup
- Humanities Tennessee will host a panel discussion, Then Now Next: Crafters, Growers & Revolutionary Ideals, in Knoxville on February 28.
- Kevin Wilson and Jamie Quatro will be featured speakers for the 2026 Southern Literary Festival in Chattanooga, April 9-11.
- AuthorCon 2026 will be held in Smyrna, April 18-19.
- Ron Rash will be the keynote speaker for ETSU’s Spring Literary Festival, April 21-22.
- Author applications are now open for Memphis Public Libraries’ 2026 Bookstock, held on May 2.
