For Artifice, her third young adult novel set during World War II, Nashville author Sharon Cameron paints a colorful and suspenseful thriller inspired by historical heroes and villains living in Amsterdam during the Nazi occupation. Cameron will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on November 7.
Emma Smith’s Portable Magic: A History of Books and Their Readers is a critical look at books as objects and the ways they have been bought and sold, used and abused, feared and celebrated, reviled and fetishized, bound, banned, and burned throughout history. Smith will deliver the Pearce Shakespeare Endowment Lecture at Rhodes College in Memphis on October 19.
Fans of dystopian romance will likely find much to enjoy in Under This Forgetful Sky, Lauren Yero’s tale of star-crossed lovers who become caught up in the dirty politics of their homelands. Yero will discuss the book at the 2023 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville on October 21-22.
Distinguished man of letters and Knoxville native David Madden adds a family memoir to his impressive roster of publications. Set mostly in mid-century Knoxville, Momma’s Lost Piano tells the story of his mother, Emily Merritt Madden, and life’s cruel betrayal of her early expectations.
Adapted for middle-grade readers from Hayley Arceneaux’s 2022 memoir of the same name, Wild Ride tells the story of her recovery from childhood cancer and her unexpected opportunity, at age 29, to join the first all-civilian mission to space.
Chapter 16 talks with master storyteller Lee Smith about her writing process and her fond memories of the annual Southern Festival of Books in Nashville. Smith will appear at this year’s festival on October 21-22.
