Ross King details the book industry of the Italian Renaissance
Vespasiano da Bisticci, called “king of the world’s booksellers” and “prince of Florentine booksellers” by contemporaries in the 15th century, makes for a compelling central figure in Ross King’s The Bookseller of Florence. King will discuss the book at a virtual event hosted by Parnassus Books in Nashville on April 19.
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J. Nicole Jones conjures her South Carolina family’s storied past in Low Country
Richly detailed and atmospheric, Nashville writer J. Nicole Jones’ memoir, Low Country, tells the multi-generational story of Jones’ family but does so by hybridizing that narrative with an ecosystem of history, folklore, and ghost stories long associated with South Carolina’s swamps, beaches, and pine forests.
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A girl’s quest to save her sister heats up Ellie Cypher’s debut YA thriller
The Girl from Shadow Springs, the debut YA novel by East Tennessee writer Ellie Cypher, depicts a young woman’s struggle against a brutal environment as she tries to save her kidnapped sister.
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Hell on the Border continues the true story of a larger-than-life lawman
Sidney Thompson’s Hell on the Border, the second novel in a planned trilogy, continues the historical tale of Bass Reeves, an enslaved Arkansan who became a legendary frontier lawman. Thompson will discuss the book at a virtual event hosted by Novel in Memphis on April 17.
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Dr. Enkeshi El-Amin talks with Chapter 16 about nurturing Black-affirming spaces
Dr. Enkeshi El-Amin is a researcher, cultural worker, and lecturer at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where she earned a Ph.D. in sociology. As co-host of the Black in Appalachia podcast and the founder of The Bottom, a non-profit community space in Knoxville, she’s working to reclaim space for Black voices and communities.
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With gratitude for Edward Hirsch and his expansive body of work
With over 2.7 million lives lost worldwide in just one year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic — nearly 550,000 in the United States alone — there are few poets whose work is more suited to guide us through this overwhelming grief than Edward Hirsch, who has said, “We need poetry to help us transform the oceanic depths of feeling into art.” Hirsch will appear at a virtual event hosted by Vanderbilt University on April 8.
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