A 12-year-old girl finds her voice in Jamie Sumner’s Tune It Out
A girl, a guitar, and a move to Nashville. With these three clues, you might think you know what Tune It Out, Jamie Sumner’s second middle-grade novel, is all about. But if you assumed 12-year-old Louise Montgomery is a rising star with a manager mom, you’d be wrong. Or at least you’d only be partially right
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Rita Sims Quillen’s sixth poetry collection focuses on the restorative power of being present
Some Notes You Hold by Rita Sims Quillen is an engaging collection about surviving life’s hardships. While these poems do not shy from the ravages of loss, they also acknowledge all the ways joy is patiently waiting for us, be it through prayer, meditation, song, or communing with nature. Quillen will appear at a virtual event hosted by Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on November 18.
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Allison Moorer turns family tragedy into bittersweet art
In Blood, country music artist Allison Moorer describes the circumstances that led to her parents’ murder-suicide in 1986 and the crime’s devastating effect on her and her only sibling, fellow singer-songwriter Shelby Lynne. Moorer will appear with Silas House in a virtual event hosted by The Porch in Nashville on October 28.
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Clarksville artist Billy Renkl illustrates his first children’s book
Clarksville artist Billy Renkl discusses figurative language, his love of paper, and creating the illustrations for his first children’s book, Diana Farid’s When You Breathe.
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Make Me Rain delivers quintessential Nikki Giovanni
For more than five decades, Nikki Giovanni has written about what it means to be a Black woman in America, calling attention to the injustices suffered by her community but also to its joys and triumphs. In her new collection of poetry and prose, Make Me Rain, her unique voice, bold yet tender, is on display again with a new relevance.
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Country music superstar Sara Evans offers her life story and hard-earned wisdom
“I was born with a God-given gift for music,” writes country music superstar Sara Evans in Born to Fly. Evans tells the story of her rise in the music industry and dispenses hard-earned wisdom — from qualities to look for (and avoid) in a mate to the comfort of her Christian faith.
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