A Publication of Humanities Tennessee

Stepping into Their Own Power

In Destiny O. Birdsong’s triptych novel, Nobody’s Magic, three Black women with albinism negotiate a racially complicated world. Birdsong will discuss Nobody’s Magic at a virtual event hosted by Parnassus Books in Nashville on February 8.

Like Walking into a Poem

In Slow Fuse of the Possible, poet Kate Daniels takes readers inside her harrowing experience as an analysand, exploring how poetry and psychoanalysis come from the same psychic place. Kate Daniels will read from her work at Vanderbilt University in Nashville on February 3.

Little Lost Girl

Sometimes during my wanderings, I would hear an announcement over the public address system for a child who had been lost. The microphone would crackle, then I’d hear “We have a little lost girl,” followed by her name and a description. The announcements seemed plaintive, urgent, important.

Always a Circling Back

East Tennessee poet Jesse Graves’ Said-Songs, a collection of essays, reviews, and interviews, evokes the author’s rural childhood to engage with the poetry of Appalachia, roots music, and the varied meanings of place.

More Than a Footnote

In A Singing Army: Zilphia Horton and the Highlander Folk School, Kim Ruehl makes a spirited, independent woman central to the story of the legendary training center for labor and civil rights activists.

A Modern Mother’s Surprising Secret

Growing up, Justine Cowan struggled with her demanding, ambitious mother, Eileen, a talented pianist who claimed noble Welsh ancestry. In her memoir, The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames, Cowan explores the grim truth of her mother’s origins and comes to understand their fraught relationship.

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