How Hancock County embraced its Melungeon secret
In Beyond the Sunset: The Melungeon Outdoor Drama, 1969-1976, Wayne Winkler delves into how the civic leaders of isolated Hancock County took the story of its marginalized mixed-race residents, the…
From the Chickasaw Bluffs to the Grizzlies’ “grit and grind,” Memphis abides
By the time Memphis was founded in 1819 on the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River, its inhabitants had already become “a confluence of multiple voices with diverse perspectives,” editors Karen…
Victims of an infamous Memphis adoption mill tell their stories in Before and After
The horrors of the Tennessee Children’s Home Society — Georgia Tann’s adoption mill that flourished in Memphis from 1924 until Tann’s death in 1950 — are now well known. Less…
Helene Dunbar’s new YA novel explores coming of age during the dawn of the AIDS epidemic
In 1983 Ronald Reagan was president, Stonewall was ancient history, and AIDS only a rumor of a strange “gay plague.” It was an intoxicating, perilous time to be a teenager…
In a new nonfiction book, Basil Hero considers the character traits of the Apollo astronauts
…when we die, we go to heaven when we’re born.” Lyda Phillips is a veteran journalist who grew up in Memphis and has earned degrees from Northwestern, Columbia, and Vanderbilt…
Elizabeth Catte deconstructs J.D. Vance’s view of a misunderstood region
…long history of that in Appalachia … certain regions and certain people just absolving all of the country’s sin so people can continue to feel self-righteous and progressive.” Lyda Phillips…
