How Hancock County embraced its Melungeon secret
In Beyond the Sunset: The Melungeon Outdoor Drama, 1969-1976, Wayne Winkler explores how Tennessee’s poorest county turned to an unlikely source for economic revival: an outdoor drama about the region’s Melungeon heritage. The play ran for just five seasons but changed the county’s view of its mixed-race neighbors forever.
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From the Chickasaw Bluffs to the Grizzlies’ “grit and grind,” Memphis abides
Karen B. Golightly and Jonathan Judaken’s Memphis: 200 Years Together weaves a series of essays on the city’s complex history into an intricate quilt.
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Victims of an infamous Memphis adoption mill tell their stories in Before and After
Some survivors of Georgia Tann’s notorious baby-selling operation spent decades wondering who they really were before finding their birth families later in life. They share their experiences in Judy Christie and Lisa Wingate’s Before and After. The authors will appear at the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library in Memphis on October 26 and Parnassus Books in Nashville on October 28.
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Helene Dunbar’s new YA novel explores coming of age during the dawn of the AIDS epidemic
In We Are Lost and Found, Helene Dunbar tells the story of three teens navigating the turbulent waters of New York City as the AIDS crisis emerges. Dunbar will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on September 6; Ya-Hoo Fest in Chattanooga on September 21; and the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville on October 11-13.
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In a new nonfiction book, Basil Hero considers the character traits of the Apollo astronauts
Basil Hero looks into the hearts of the “farmboy nerds” of NASA’s race to the moon and finds modest men with the ability to sequester their fears and focus on a task. Hero will discuss The Mission of a Lifetime at Novel in Memphis on April 28.
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Elizabeth Catte deconstructs J.D. Vance’s view of a misunderstood region
Elizabeth Catte’s What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia eviscerates the view of Appalachia as a dysfunctional region populated exclusively by hard-headed white folks. Catte will discuss What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia at the East Tennessee History Center in Knoxville on August 30.
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