Colson Whitehead constructs an alternate route out of American slavery in The Underground Railroad
In Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad, fugitive slaves are spirited away to freedom by an actual network of trains. The Underground Railroad is the 2018 Memphis Reads selection. Whitehead will discuss the novel at Christian Brothers University on September 5 and at Rhodes College on September 6. Both events are free and open to the public.
Read more
In Luis Alberto Urrea’s The House of Broken Angels, a dying patriarch gathers his family
Big Angel de la Cruz, protagonist of Luis Alberto Urrea’s The House of Broken Angels, is dying and hopes to make peace with his family before he dies. Urrea will appear at the 2018 Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 12-14.
Read more
Nell Painter, a renowned historian, finds a new identity as an artist
In her memoir, Old in Art School: A Memoir of Starting Over, Nell Painter writes about learning to see art, and herself, in new ways. Painter will appear at the 2018 Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 12-14.
Read more
Tayari Jones talks with Chapter 16 about her newest novel, An American Marriage
Tayari Jones, who will talk about her novel An American Marriage during the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville October 12-14, sets her fiction in Atlanta because the urban South is “a microcosm of all the issues facing the country.”
Read more
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.
Read more
In Victoria Schwab’s new middle-grade series, the adults make a living from ghost stories, but it’s their daughter who sees them.
In City of Ghosts, the first in a series aimed at middle-grade readers, Victoria Schwab’s protagonist not only sees ghosts but can also enter their world. The Nashville native will discuss City of Ghosts at Parnassus Books in Nashville on August 28.
Read more
