Sam Quinones’ The Least of Us makes a compelling case for our survival
In The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth, journalist Sam Quinones reveals the new street drugs that are decimating the lives of Americans — and the people who are fighting them in their communities. Quinones will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on November 5.
Read more
Book Excerpt: Black Cowboys of Rodeo
Black Cowboys of Rodeo: Unsung Heroes from Harlem to Hollywood and the American West by Keith Ryan Cartwright collects the stories of pioneering Black cowboys, placing their challenges and triumphs against the backdrop of America’s struggle for racial equality and social justice. Cartwright will appear at a virtual event hosted by Parnassus Books in Nashville on November 4.
Read more
Percival Everett’s The Trees bears witness to America’s long history of violence
In an age when many find justice elusive, some have resorted to the courtroom of fiction. The Trees by Percival Everett is a prime example of this literary justice, examining an American history of lynching, racism, and police brutality.
Read more
Book Excerpt: Moon Jar
Didi Jackson’s poems have appeared in The New Yorker, American Poetry Review, New England Review, Kenyon Review, Best American Poetry, and the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day. She currently teaches creative writing at Vanderbilt University.
Read more
A young girl in 1910 New York wrestles with fears both real and imagined
“Not everything is a monster,” admits 10-year-old Essie O’Neill in J. Kasper Kramer’s new middle grade novel, The List of Unspeakable Fears. “But some things are.” Essie should know; she keeps a list. And moving to a spooky old house in the middle of an island full of dangerously sick people is about to provide a lot more entries.
Read more
For Tennessee writers, our environment’s fate hinges on unearthing the truth about where we stand
When I look across Tennessee’s literary ecosystem, I see how many of our writers feel compelled to write about their relationship to the land. Some have intertwined their literary vision with an environmental mission. Others have devoted their work to excavating truths about our history that have lain buried for too long.
Read more
