March 28, 2013 The characters in Tova Mirvis’s novel Visible City dwell in the glittering flux of New York, constantly exposed to moments of potential clash and change. They play their official roles—stay-at-home mother, lawyer, therapist, art historian—as seamlessly as they can manage, but inside they seek routes of escape. Mirvis, a Memphis native, will discuss Visible City at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis on April 2, 2014, at 6 p.m.
January 28, 2014 Threadgill Pickett, the 114-year-old protagonist of Charles McNair’s novel Pickett’s Charge, is the last surviving Confederate soldier. Roused from his Alabama rest home by a mysterious visitation from his long-dead brother, Threadgill sets out on a long trek to Bangor, Maine, where he plans to kill the last surviving Union solider. Absurdity and tragedy follow Threadgill wherever he goes, and revenge begins to seem a tougher, stranger business than he’d anticipated. McNair will appear at Howlin’ Books in Nashville on January 30, 2014, at 6 p.m.
November 27, 2013 Housebound, the debut novel by Knoxville author Elizabeth Gentry, is an adventure in genre, immersed in the strange, dark world of fairy tales and gothic novels. The story centers around Maggie, the eldest of nine children in a family held together by a mysterious collection of unspoken yet airtight rules. When she breaks house rules by announcing her intention to leave home, Maggie embarks on an adventure that will change her life. Elizabeth Gentry will discuss Housebound at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville at 6 p.m. on December 6, 2013.
October 8, 2013 Hattie Shepherd, the woman at the center of Ayana Mathis’s debut novel, The Twelve Tribes of Hattie—made famous as the first selection of Oprah’s Book Club 2.0—has survived the Jim Crow South, a decades-long struggle with poverty, and life as the mother of eleven children. Today Mathis talks with Chapter 16 about Hattie’s complicated character. Mathis will appear at the twenty-fifth annual Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 11-13, 2013. All festival events are free and open to the public.
September 13, 2013 In Michael Farris Smith’s debut novel, Rivers, the world seems to be getting “badder all the time,” and the Gulf Coast is declared uninhabitable. Two years after the final evacuation, Smith sets a small band of characters on the dangerous road North, toward the hope of a new life free from storms. Michael Farris Smith will discuss Rivers at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 11-13, 2013. All festival events are free and open to the public.
September 6, 2013 Tara Conklin’s debut novel, The House Girl, revolves around the legacy of Josephine Bell, a long-dead artist who lived as a house slave on a Virginia tobacco farm. By interweaving Josephine’s story with the path of the researcher trying to uncover that buried history, the novel confronts the question of whether it’s ever truly possible to restore what’s been ruptured by time and injustice. Conklin will appear at the twenty-fifth annual Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 11-13, 2013. All festival events are free and open to the public.
