2017 Southern Festival of Books | Chapter 16

Beautiful, Muddy Things

A teenager carves a small-town space for herself in Courtney Stevens’s latest YA novel

By Kathryn Justice Leache | August 21, 2017

Billie McCaffrey, narrator of Courtney Stevens’s latest YA novel, Dress Codes for Small Towns, must find a way to reconcile her square-peg place in a round-hole Kentucky town. Stevens will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on August 25 at 6:30 p.m.; at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Chattanooga on September 9 at 2 p.m.; and at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 13-15.

Quoth the Raven

Jim Minick’s novel of faith healing begins with a disastrous fire

By Ralph Bowden | August 18, 2017

In Fire Is Your Water, Jim Minick’s debut novel, a young couple faces disasters and struggles with their relationships to each other and to God. Minick will appear at The Arts Building in Chattanooga on August 27; and at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 13-15; and at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on October 15.

Cold Hands, Warm Heart

Book publicist Caitlin Hamilton Summie steps to the other side of the literary desk

By Sarah Carter | August 17, 2017

Caitlin Hamilton Summie’s debut story collection, To Lay to Rest Our Ghosts, explores complex familial relationships against the backdrop of the snow-covered Midwest. The author will appear at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Knoxville on August 26 and at the Southern Festival of Books, which will be held in Nashville October 13-15.

Small and Immense

In a new collection, poet Jeff Hardin explores greatness in artists and in nature

By Erica Wright | August 16, 2017

Jeff Hardin’s latest poetry collection, No Other Kind of World, which won the 2016 X.J. Kennedy Award, examines artists’ capacity for greatness and nature’s talent for humbling us all. Hardin will read from the book at the Scarritt Bennett Center in Nashville on August 24; at Landmark Booksellers in Franklin on August 29; and at the 2017 Southern Festival Books, which will be held in Nashville October 13-15.

Finding Roots in Rubble

Preparing for the birth of her first child, Hannah Palmer tries to find her own childhood

By Faye Jones | August 15, 2017

When Hannah Palmer returns to her home town, she finds that Atlanta has been forever changed by the “world’s busiest airport.” Part personal memoir, part investigative journalism, Flight Path is a compelling read for anyone who lives in a rapidly-growing city. Palmer will appear at the 2017 Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 13-15.

Dreams of Happiness

Two generations struggle for love and success in Stephanie Powell Watts’s No One Is Coming to Save Us

By Maria Browning | August 14, 2017

In No One Is Coming to Save Us, Stephanie Powell Watts takes up themes from The Great Gatsby—wealth, social position, the search for love—and explores them through a twenty-first-century African-American family in the Piedmont region of North Carolina. Watts will appear at the 2017 Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 13-15.

Tias and Primas: On Knowing and Loving the Women Who Raise Us

By Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez, illustrated by Josie Del Castillo
Seal Press
304 pages
$30

“Within these pages, I found my abuela, my tías and my primas — laughing, crying, and nodding alongside me. This book is a gift of understanding, and loving one’s family, even when our families are complicated and painful. It’s a beautiful reminder of the power of storytelling and the profound connection of kinship.”

~ Paola Mendoza, author, organizer and filmmaker