In Robert Walker Corey Mesler imagines his way into the life of a homeless man
In his novel Robert Walker, Corey Mesler gives readers a glimpse into the mind and heart of a homeless man wandering the streets of Memphis. Mesler will discuss Robert Walker at Burke’s Book Store in Memphis on September 29 at 5:30 p.m.
The poems in Linda Parsons’s This Shaky Earth whisper elusive truths of the heart
June 1, 2016 The poems in Linda Parsons’s This Shaky Earth take their material from the prosaic and the deeply personal, but there’s nothing narrow about them. Rich with all the mystery and complexity of human feeling, they often depict the pleasures of home darkened by troubled memories. Parsons will discuss This Shaky Earth at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on June 5, 2016, at 2 p.m.
Sonja Livingston resurrects forgotten women and girls in Ladies Night at the Dreamland
April 21, 2016 Sonja Livingston’s second essay collection, Ladies Night at the Dreamland, is a kind of literary search-and-rescue effort. In twenty-one delicately crafted pieces, she brings forth a remarkable group of little-known women and girls from the past, imagining her way into their lives with lyrical intensity. Livingston will discuss the book at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis on April 26, 2016, at 6:30 p.m.
Colin Dayan considers the human-canine bond in With Dogs at the Edge of Life
March 29, 2016 Written from a perspective shaped by a passionate, unorthodox sympathy for dogs, Vanderbilt University professor Colin Dayan’s With Dogs at the Edge of Life explores the troubling contradictions in the human-canine relationship.
Nate Marshall surveys his Chicago youth in his debut poetry collection, Wild Hundreds
March 10, 2016 Vanderbilt alum Nate Marshall grew up on Chicago’s troubled far South Side, miles and worlds away from the city’s tourist attractions and gleaming skyscrapers. His debut poetry collection, Wild Hundreds, evokes the beauty and joy that exist there alongside the struggle. Marshall will give a free public reading at Vanderbilt University in Nashville on March 18, 2016, at 4 p.m.
David Dark erases divisions in Life’s Too Short to Pretend You’re Not Religious
February 29, 2016 We all hold something sacred, even if it’s only the right to hold nothing sacred. In Life’s Too Short to Pretend You’re Not Religious, David Dark sets out to wring some deeper truth from this facile notion and find possibilities for connection hidden within the very beliefs that appear to divide us. Dark will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on March 4, 2016, at 6:30 p.m.
