Chapter 16 - Part 299

Every Man for Himself

Donald Ray Pollock’s The Heavenly Table, set in 1917, reveals desperate hardship among the rural poor

By Sean Kinch | July 13, 2016

Donald Ray Pollock’s new novel, The Heavenly Table, charts the path of the Jewett Gang, three brothers and bank robbers fated to meet Eula and Ellsworth Fiddler, Ohio farmers plagued by bad luck and worse decisions. Pollock will discuss The Heavenly Table at Crosstown Arts in Memphis on July 19, 2016, at 6:30 p.m., and at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 14-16, 2016.

A Cape Canaveral of the Soul

Patrick Ryan’s new stories place buoyant, striving characters in a small patch of Florida

By Peggy Burch | July 12, 2016

Set in Cape Canaveral in the late twentieth century, Patrick Ryan’s stories conjure a rich variety of intriguing souls, from a pregnant teen who wants to be Miss America to a gay sixteen-year-old with a crush on an ex-astronaut. Ryan will discuss The Dream Life of Astronauts in conversation with Ann Patchett at Parnassus Books in Nashville on July 19, 2016, at 6:30 p.m.

Humanities Tennessee Announces an All-Star Lineup

The twenty-eighth annual Southern Festival of Books will bring more than 250 authors to Nashville

July 9, 2016

July 11, 2016 Today Humanities Tennessee announced a lineup of award-winning, bestselling authors who will headline the twenty-eighth annual Southern Festival of Books, which will be held at Legislative Plaza in Nashville October 14-16, 2016. All festival events are free and open to the public.

Southern Festival of Books 2015

For a hint of the fun to come in 2016, check out these photos from the 2015 Southern Festival of Books

July 9, 2016

With the run-up to the 2016 Southern Festival of Books now officially underway, it’s a good time to remember the festival of 2015.

Forgotten but Not Gone

T.S. Stribling, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1933, deserves an important place in Southern literary study

By Kenneth W. Vickers | July 8, 2016

July 8, 2016 In the last of a nine-essay series commemorating the centennial year of the Pulitzer Prizes, scholar Kenneth W. Vickers considers the lasting significance of T.S. Stribling, the first Tennessee writer to be awarded a Pulitzer Prize.

Prophets of Doom

In Christopher Hebert’s Angels of Detroit, young idealists believe they must destroy the city to save it

By Sean Kinch | July 7, 2016

AngelsOfDetroitjkt (1) Christopher Hebert’s new novel, Angels of Detroit, features a cast of characters who believe that the apocalypse is coming, and humanity is too narcotized or distracted to pay attention. Hebert will appear at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on July 17, 2016, at 2 p.m. and at the John C. Hodges Library at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville on August 29, 2016, at 7 p.m.

I Gotta Sing!

By Alice Faye Duncan
WaterBrook
40 pages
$14.99

“A whole barnyard makes noise ‘in the Spirit of joy’ throughout this raucous picture book, a sweetly heartwarming sing-along by Duncan. Kellam conveys comfort and happiness as the loved ones reflect sunny enthusiasm in this gladdening rendition of the Black American religious folk song ‘I’m Goin’a Sing When the Spirit Says Sing.’”

~Publishers Weekly