In The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels, Jon Meacham examines this country’s history of division and finds optimism in the way Americans have responded to trying times. Meacham will appear in conversation with Governor Bill Haslam at Montgomery Bell Academy on May 12.

Rick Bragg’s subject in The Best Cook in the World: Tales from My Momma’s Table is the family’s foodways—its long legacy of Southern cooking, its relationship with food through hard times and flush seasons, the recipes handed down generation upon generation. Bragg will appear at Novel in Memphis on May 7 and at the Nashville Public Library on May 8.

In Make Trouble, Cecile Richards shares the lessons she’s learned in a lifetime on the front lines of battles for social change. Richards will appear in conversation with Ann Patchett at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music in Nashville on May 9.

Southern Writers on Writing is not the first attempt to ask what it means to tell about the South, but it is distinguished by the presence of diverse voices, from sage elders like Clyde Edgerton and Lee Smith to rising stars like Julie Cantrell, M.O. Walsh, and Michael Farris Smith. Cushman will join several contributors for a panel discussion at Novel in Memphis on May 5.