Matthew Baker toys with storytelling conventions in Why Visit America
Matthew Baker’s second story collection, Why Visit America, explores and cross-breeds multiple genres, upending readers’ expectations through alienated characters, fierce conflicts, and surreal settings.
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A Nashville journalist maps a Syrian-American restaurateur’s moving journey to Hendersonville
By turns heartbreaking and inspiring, Jordan Ritter Conn’s The Road from Raqqa recounts in vivid detail the triumphs and grim realities of a Syrian immigrant, Riyad Alkasem, struggling to make a new life in the U.S. while trying to maintain family bonds across the world. Conn will appear with Riyad Alkasem at the 2020 Southern Festival of Books, held online October 1-11.
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In Odie Lindsey’s Some Go Home, secrets, lies, and myths collide across generations
Complex strands of cultural and personal history intersect in Odie Lindsey’s Some Go Home, an ambitious debut novel exploring the relationship between private trauma and public strife. Lindsey will discuss Some Go Home in virtual events hosted by the Southern Independent Booksellers Association on August 6 and the Southern Festival of Books, October 1-11.
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The 2020 Southern Festival of Books takes its stellar roster of authors online
Julia Alvarez, Yaa Gyasi, Erik Larson, and Natasha Trethewey are just a few of the authors on the roster for the 32nd Southern Festival of Books. Everything’s online this year, and book lovers everywhere are invited.
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I’d never seen a mosque in the South.
On Eid-ul-Azha, the Feast of the Sacrifice, I knew no one in Nashville. I decided to wear my white shalwar kameez to commemorate the festival. What else could be done?
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In Angela Flournoy’s first novel, members of a large Detroit clan clash and thrive in a city under stress
Set in Detroit, Angela Flournoy’s critically celebrated first novel follows the struggles—with relationships, addiction, finances, even a ghost—of thirteen siblings and their parents. Flournoy discussed The Turner House with Chapter 16 prior to her 2016 appearances at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville and the University of Tennessee campus in Knoxville.
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