Rita Sims Quillen is the author of three poetry collections—The Mad Farmer’s Wife, Counting the Sums, and Her Secret Dream—as well as a novel, Hiding Ezra, and a book of essays, Looking for Native Ground: Contemporary Appalachian Poetry. Quillen will read from The Mad Farmer’s Wife at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on October 23 at 2 p.m.
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Jack Hamilton explores the way race distorted the iconic music of the 1960s
In Just Around Midnight, Jack Hamilton describes how great artists such as Sam Cooke, Bob Dylan, the Beatles, Aretha Franklin, and the Rolling Stones crossed the race line in their music, even as the culture was separating “rock” and “soul” into separate genres. The Stax Museum of American Soul Music in Memphis will host a conversation and book signing with Hamilton on October 27 at 7 p.m.
In a new anthology, South Asian American daughters construct their own identities
Pushing past the pressure to be perfect daughters, the writers in Good Girls Marry Doctors provide a multifaceted look at women who are moving beyond and even reconstructing cultural and familial expectations. Editor Piyali Bhattacharya will discuss Good Girls Marry Doctors at Parnassus Books in Nashville on October 25 at 6:30 p.m.
Memphis writer Jamey Hatley wins two national grants for work in progress
Jamey Hatley has received a total of $55,000 this year from the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer’s Award and the National Endowment for the Arts to work on her first novel, The Dream-Singers. The book is set in Memphis, beginning with the birth of twins in 1968—one born as Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his final speech and the other when he is assassinated.
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The energy and attitude of punk music inspired Rob Rufus after a devastating diagnosis
As a teen growing up in the 1990s, Rob Rufus and his friends felt the classic alienation of youth. In Die Young with Me: A Memoir, Rufus tells the story of discovering punk music and his simultaneous battle with cancer.
As the Southern Festival of Books opens, Jeff Hardin reflects on the power of a community of readers
“I’ve missed the Southern Festival of Books only twice since its founding twenty-eight years ago, and I carry with me many of the voices I first heard there. They are a witness to the shared lives of so many who’ve gone before us, and their voices—their testimonies—remind us as writers and readers to carry on, to keep adding new voices to this celebration.” Poet Jeff Hardin kicks off the Southern Festival of Books, which runs today through Sunday at Nashville’s Legislative Plaza. Festival events are free and open to the public.
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