Helen Ellis dishes on poker, Twitter, and American Housewife
Whether she’s cracking “Southern Lady Code,” chronicling a neighborly dispute that metastasizes into an epic battle, or skewering the conventions of reality television, Helen Ellis manages to be both outrageous and utterly believable. Ellis will discuss American Housewife at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 14-16.
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In Robert Olen Butler’s Perfume River, Vietnam haunts soldiers and their families decades after the war
In Robert Olen Butler’s new novel, Perfume River, the past is very much present as an aging history professor struggles to shake traumatic memories of the Vietnam War and the way it tore his family apart. Butler will discuss Perfume River at Crosstown Arts in Memphis on October 13 at 6 p.m., and also at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 14-16.
An overscheduled woman walks out on her life in Gayle Forman’s Leave Me
Gayle Forman’s first novel for adults, Leave Me, takes a hard look at love, life choices, and the reasons women stay in difficult relationships. Forman will appear at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 14-16. Festival events are free and open to the public.
William Ferris’s latest collection articulates complex feelings about the rural South
The South in Color: A Visual Journal completes a collection of William Ferris’s visual documentary work about his home state and its complicated racial and cultural history. The esteemed scholar of Southern culture will discuss The South in Color at the Cotton Museum in Memphis on October 8 at 6 p.m., and at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 14-16. Festival events are free and open to the public.
Megan Abbott’s latest novel mines gymnastics to menacing effect
You Will Know Me, the latest novel from suspense master Megan Abbott, focuses on a gymnastics prodigy and her family as they grapple with an unexpected and tragic accident. Abbott will appear at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 14-16.
Thomas Mullen delivers a hardboiled historical gem
Thomas Mullen’s new crime novel Darktown is a twisted and tangled ride through big-city corruption and the dark and bloody ground of the Jim Crow South. Mullen will appear at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 14-16.
