Joy Harjo’s poems celebrate transcendence and confront fear
Acclaimed poet Joy Harjo’s most recent collection, Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings, delivers the exquisite mix of beauty, transcendence, and pain her work is known for. Harjo joined the creative-writing faculty at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville this year and will give a free public reading at UT’s Hodges Library on January 23 at 7 p.m.
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Zadie Smith’s Swing Time looks at female love and cruelty
Zadie Smith’s Swing Time tells the story of a childhood friendship and grapples with themes of race, class, and gender. It transcends the personal without ever losing sight of human passion, embodied in the intense feelings between two little girls. Smith will appear at Belmont University in Nashville on January 19 at 6:30 p.m.
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Lydia Peelle’s debut novel, The Midnight Cool, is a tale of two Tennessee horse traders during World War I
In Lydia Peelle’s debut novel, The Midnight Cool, a pair of itinerant horse traders is drawn into a web of mystery, love, and opportunity as WWI throws the country into turmoil. Peelle will read from the book at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis on January 16, Parnassus Books in Nashville on January 21, and at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on February 10. At each event, Peelle’s husband, Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show, will perform music from the era.
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In Seeds on Ice, Memphis native Cary Fowler explains the need for a global seed vault
Cary Fowler is the driving force behind the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a storehouse of genetic diversity located beneath the icy landscape of northernmost Norway. In Seeds on Ice, Fowler explains how the vault came to be and offers a virtual visit to its Arctic home via photographs by Mari Tefre. Fowler will appear at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis on December 10.
In work and life, Dorothy Allison defies narrow categories
Whether she’s writing about her tough, spirited characters or her own difficult life, Dorothy Allison seems determined to defy all narrow categories, seeking instead to express the full complexity of human experience. Allison, who serves as the 2016 Acuff Chair at the Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts at Austin Peay State University, will speak on October 27 at 8 p.m. in Clement Auditorium on the APSU campus. The event is free and open to the public.
Richard Schweid considers the plight of homeless families in Invisible Nation
In his ninth book, Invisible Nation: Homeless Families in America, Richard Schweid surveys the plight of homeless children in five cities and considers possible solutions. Schweid will appear at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 14-16.
