Denise Kiernan’s 2013 book The Girls of Atomic City chronicles the experiences of women working in the secrecy-shrouded town of Oak Ridge during WWII. The author will join Jane Marcellus to discuss the book on Facebook Live on September 19.
Rachel Louise Martin’s A Most Tolerant Little Town: The Explosive Beginning of School Desegregation recounts the story of the “Clinton 12,” who in 1956 were the first students to desegregate an all-white public high school in the South. Martin will discuss the book at Parnassus Books in Nashville on June 14 and Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on June 20.
In Half-Life of a Secret, Emily Strasser tells the story of her grandfather, a chemist for Oak Ridge’s World War II Manhattan Project, and how family secrets intersect with national ones.
Joy Harjo’s Catching the Light offers short vignettes on the meaning of language, poetry, and place, taking us to a realm between ordinary reality and artistic vision.
Becca Andrews’ No Choice takes readers to communities in the South and beyond where abortion rights have eroded, particularly with the fall of Roe v. Wade. Andrews will appear at the 2022 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville on October 14-16.
In Another Appalachia, Neema Avashia explores what it is like to grow up both gay and the daughter of immigrants, making sense of life as both insider and outsider.
