James McGrath Morris recovers the life of Ethel Payne, a forgotten crusader in the struggle for black freedom
As a reporter and advocate for racial justice, Ethel Payne shaped American society. James McGrath Morris’s biography of her, Eye on the Struggle, is the winner of the 2015 National Book Award from the Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change. Morris will speak about the book at 6 p.m. on November 15 at the University of Memphis.
Sarah Bakewell breathes new life into the great existential thinkers
Heidegger, Sartre, de Beauvoir, Camus—in her enchanting group biography, At the Existentialist Café, Sarah Bakewell shines a light on these great existential writers and the world they made. Bakewell will discuss the book on November 9 at Rhodes College in Memphis.
Jack Hamilton explores the way race distorted the iconic music of the 1960s
In Just Around Midnight, Jack Hamilton describes how great artists such as Sam Cooke, Bob Dylan, the Beatles, Aretha Franklin, and the Rolling Stones crossed the race line in their music, even as the culture was separating “rock” and “soul” into separate genres. The Stax Museum of American Soul Music in Memphis will host a conversation and book signing with Hamilton on October 27 at 7 p.m.
Johnny Smith talks about the fractured friendship of Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X
In Blood Brothers, historians Johnny Smith and Randy Roberts chronicle the friendship of two dynamic figures: Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X. Smith will discuss the book at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis on September 22 at 6 p.m.
Jason Ward investigates a series of lynchings in Clarke County, Mississippi
With deep research and vivid writing, Jason Ward tells the story of two lynchings in Clarke County, Mississippi, that explain both black progress and white resistance across the course of the twentieth century. Ward will discuss Hanging Bridge at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 14-16, 2016.
In Evicted, Matthew Desmond combines novelistic detail with a game-changing analysis of how the housing market shapes urban poverty
Matthew Desmond’s Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City is an extraordinary account of renters and landlords in Milwaukee. It forces the reader to understand the urban housing market as not just a consequence but also a cause of poverty. Desmond will be at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 14-16, 2016. Festival events are free and open to the public.
