Acclaimed children’s author Renée Watson talks about inspiration, collaboration, and activism
Renée Watson’s Ways to Make Sunshine is the first in a new chapter book series for young readers. Watson will discuss the book at the 2020 Southern Festival of Books, held online October 1-11.
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Randall Kenan’s If I Had Two Wings returns to Tims Creek
In Randall Kenan’s new story collection, If I Had Two Wings, the residents of Tims Creek, North Carolina, often find themselves in bewildering circumstances, caught up in twists of fate that demand an unrehearsed response.
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Erica Wright takes a sympathetic look at serpents in Snake
“The more reptile facilities I’ve visited and festivals I’ve attended, the more photos I’ve browsed online, the more I’ve become fascinated rather than afraid,” says Erica Wright in Snake. She shows the reptiles some love in this deeply personal and highly readable essay collection.
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In Vesper Flights, Helen Macdonald explores the interconnectedness of humans and wildlife
In her new essay collection, Vesper Flights, English naturalist Helen Macdonald reveals that the interconnectivity between humans and wildlife is constant, often fraught, and — on occasion — sublime. Macdonald will discuss Vesper Flights with Margaret Renkl in a ticketed online event benefiting Humanities Tennessee, hosted by Parnassus Books in Nashville on September 15.
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Bestselling kids’ author Alan Gratz talks about his love of detective novels and a book that surprised him
Knoxville native Alan Gratz takes on tough subjects in his fiction for young readers, as in his 2019 novel, Allies, set during World War II. Resist, a companion novella to Allies, will be released as an ebook and audiobook in September. In response to our Glorious Pastime questionnaire, Gratz tells Chapter 16 what he’s been reading lately and recommends an underappreciated book series.
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What does it mean to go where you don’t belong?
We’re driving up to Marquette, a college town in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula for the beginning of my freshman year, something no other Vargo has ever done in the history of the Vargos. As we drive, I grow more ashamed with each passing mile marker. My father is old and we are poor and I am 18, trying to reinvent myself in a place I’ve never known.
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