August 25, 2014 In Perfidia, a wartime tour de force, James Ellroy returns to familiar characters and historical figures in the first book of what he calls his Second L.A. Quartet. The novel focuses on betrayals large and small among the Los Angeles police in the days following the attack on Pearl Harbor. Ellroy will appear at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 10-12, 2014. All festival events are free and open to the public.
August 4, 2014 With In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette, Memphis native Hampton Sides, known for his suspenseful historical writing, records a heroic three-year struggle for survival by the crew of a nineteenth-century polar expedition. Sides will appear at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis on August 8, 2014, at 7 p.m., and also at Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville on August 12, 2014, at 6:15 p.m. Both events are free and open to the public.
July 28, 2014 Clay Risen, a frequent Chapter16 contributor, returns to the historic struggle for civil rights in The Bill of the Century: The Epic Battle for the Civil Rights Act, a penetrating account of the heroic effort to pass the landmark 1964 legislation. He will appear at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville October 10-12, 2014. All festival events are free and open to the public.
July 24, 2014 John Pritchard’s Sailing to Alluvium may be one of the most profane novels ever published, but it’s a distinctly Southern profanity, delivering surprisingly sophisticated social commentary. It is also a real hoot. John Pritchard will appear at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville October 10-12, 2014. All festival events are free and open to the public.
April 21, 2014 With Stray Decorum, his fourth short-story collection, George Singleton has cemented his reputation as one of the country’s finest—and funniest—masters of the short story. Singleton will give a free public reading at Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville on April 21, 2014. The event will take place in the Dead Poets Society Room of Lowry Hall at 5 p.m.
February 12, 2014 North Carolina-based author Wiley Cash garnered widespread praise for his 2012 debut novel, A Land More Kind Than Home, which explored a small town’s dark secret through multiple narrators. He returns to the technique in his new novel, This Dark Road to Mercy, a short, gripping thriller in which the action unfolds via four very different voices, against the backdrop of the 1998 home-run race between Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire. Cash will discuss and sign This Dark Road to Mercy at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis on February 17, 2014, at 6 p.m.
