December 10, 2013 Frank Joyner feels the weight of the world on his shoulders. Natural-gas drilling, known as “hydrofracturing,” has come to his town, and many of his neighbors have already made deals to allow drilling on their land. Now Frank feels responsible for holding off the collapse of his community. In Fractures, UT grad Lamar Herrin plumbs the fissures of both family and land.
November 25, 2013 Selected Poems by the late Wilmer Mills includes poems about building a house, plowing a field, and crafting a cradle, among others. This poet, who died in 2011 at age forty-one, writes from specific, hands-on experience but also sees beyond the ordinary to touch what is timeless in each act.
November 19, 2013 In Swing Low, Sweet Harriet, her new historical novel for young readers, Knoxville writer Rhonda Hicks Rucker tells a suspenseful story of Civil War espionage and the inspiring struggle for freedom waged by African Americans—both those whose names we know, like Harriet Tubman, and many more unsung heroes.
October 4, 2013 Rick Riordan continues his popular Heroes of Olympus series with the fourth installment, The House of Hades, in which Percy Jackson and his friends head to the very gates of Hell. Today Riordan talks with Chapter 16 prior to his appearance 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.
October 2, 2013 Janis Ian’s new picture book, The Tiny Mouse, marks the singer-songwriter’s first foray into children’s literature, although the two-time Grammy Award-winner is the author of a well-received 2008 autobiography, Society’s Child. Janis Ian 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 17, 2013 In her third novel, The Funeral Dress, Susan Gregg Gilmore does her finest work to date, perfectly capturing the rhythm and music of small-town Southern life in a quiet story about the ways women support one another when times are tough. Gilmore will discuss The Funeral Dress at Parnassus Books in Nashville on September 24, 2013, at 6:30 p.m., and again at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on October 6 at 2 p.m.
