Oxford scholar Emma Smith on the cultural history of the book
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.
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A trip through the mind of civil rights icon Julian Bond
FROM THE CHAPTER 16 ARCHIVE: Race Man: Selected Works, 1960-2015 collects a wide array of writings from civil rights leader Julian Bond, whose life provides a model of servant leadership.
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Poet Anders Carlson-Wee on his new collection, Disease of Kings
Anders Carlson-Wee’s second poetry collection, Disease of Kings, explores a story of friendship, loneliness, and survival. Carlson-Wee will appear at the 2023 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville on October 21-22.
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Tan Twan Eng’s The House of Doors creates a world of false facades and alter egos
In Tan Twan Eng’s The House of Doors, celebrated writer W. Somerset Maugham visits friends in the Malay Peninsula during a time of personal crisis and political upheaval. Tan will discuss The House of Doors at the 2023 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville on October 21-22.
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Margaret Renkl on beauty, climate change, and her literary devotional, The Comfort of Crows
Essayist and New York Times columnist Margaret Renkl brings her keen eye and tender observations to her Nashville backyard in The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year. Renkl will appear in Nashville at David Lusk Gallery on October 14, the 2023 Southern Festival of Books on October 21-22, and Harpeth Hall School on October 24; at The Book & Cover in Chattanooga on November 6; St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral in Knoxville on November 13; and Novel in Memphis on December 4.
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Poet Terrance Hayes minds and mines language in a pair of new books
In a new poetry collection and a volume of prose and images, poet Terrance Hayes undertakes a multi-faceted exploration of expression. Terrance Hayes will appear at Tennessee State University’s Otis Floyd Campus Center in Nashville on October 18 at 7 p.m. as part of the 2023 Southern Festival of Books.
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