It was a perfect weekend in October for readers and writers
Whether you missed the festival, or just want a chance to remember the fun, here’s a quick look back at the 28th annual Southern Festival of Books
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In work and life, Dorothy Allison defies narrow categories
Whether she’s writing about her tough, spirited characters or her own difficult life, Dorothy Allison seems determined to defy all narrow categories, seeking instead to express the full complexity of human experience. Allison, who serves as the 2016 Acuff Chair at the Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts at Austin Peay State University, will speak on October 27 at 8 p.m. in Clement Auditorium on the APSU campus. The event is free and open to the public.
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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