Kim Ruehl explores the life of activist Zilphia Horton in A Singing Army
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.
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In The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames, a daughter confronts her mother’s Dickensian childhood
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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Essayists explore what can’t be unseen in Don’t Look Now
In Don’t Look Now: Things We Wish We Hadn’t Seen, a collection of essays edited by Kristen Iversen and David Lazar, 18 writers explore images they wished they’d looked away from — but didn’t.
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Three Appalachian women tell their stories in Voices Worth the Listening
Thomas Burton’s Voices Worth the Listening: Three Women of Appalachia invites readers into the lives of three women from the Blue Ridge Mountains, allowing them to tell their unique stories of struggle and resilience.
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A memorable first encounter with Tennessee
Uncle K got to be a good provider, as men were supposed to be then, and Aunt Z got to be a good wife. Best of all, they never had to see each other.
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Jenn Shapland’s memoir explores the relationship between a writer and her subject
After discovering Carson McCullers’ correspondence with love interest Annemarie Clarac-Schwarzenbach, writer Jenn Shapland set off on a journey to learn more about McCullers, and in doing so, about herself. She tells the story of the journey in My Autobiography of Carson McCullers: A Memoir. Shapland will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on February 5 and at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on February 7.
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