2019 Southern Festival of Books | Chapter 16

Intimate Strangers

A new essay collection edited by Samia Serageldin and Lee Smith explores the mother-child relationship

By Susannah Felts | April 8, 2019

Mothers and Strangers, edited by Samia Serageldin and Lee Smith, features explorations of what Serageldin calls the “most intimate of strangers, the women who raised us.” Serageldin and Smith will discuss the essay collection at Parnassus Books in Nashville on April 12. Smith will also appear with Jill McCorkle, Marshall Chapman, and Matraca Berg in a performance of Good Ol’ Girls at the Belcourt Theatre in Nashville on April 11.

“More Honored in the Breach: A Note to Ghost, Absent”

Book Excerpt: The Feral Condition

By Gaylord Brewer | April 5, 2019

Gaylord Brewer is a professor at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro. His most recent books are a cookbook-memoir, The Poet’s Guide to Food, Drink, & Desire, and a new collection, The Feral Condition, from which this poem is excerpted.

Math as Muse

Rationality and creativity converge in Stephen Ornes’s Math Art

By Maria Browning | April 1, 2019

In Math Art: Truth, Beauty, and Equations, Nashville science writer Stephen Ornes sets out to survey the remarkable breadth of contemporary art that’s fueled by a fascination with math. Ornes will appear at Star Line Books in Chattanooga on April 4.

False Impressions and True Selves

Michael Knight’s At Briarwood School for Girls is haunted—and haunting

By Ed Tarkington | March 29, 2019

Michael Knight’s new novel, At Briarwood School for Girls, juxtaposes teen pregnancy, boarding- school intrigue, an ill-fated attempt to build a Disney theme park next to a Civil War battlefield, and a visitation of spirits. Knight will appear at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on April 4.

Time to Grow Up

In Claire Gibson’s Beyond the Point, three young soldiers fight enemies both external and internal

By Sean Kinch | March 27, 2019

In Beyond the Point, Nashville novelist Claire Gibson follows three female basketball players through West Point and beyond. As love and loss test their strength, these soldiers discover who their allies really are. Gibson will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on April 3.

Try it Again, More Like You

In I Miss You When I Blink, Mary Laura Philpott delivers an irresistibly charming memoir in essays

By Ed Tarkington | March 26, 2019

“My name is Mary Laura, and I am addicted to getting things right.” In I Miss You When I Blink, Mary Laura Philpott, co-host of Nashville Public Television’s A Word on Words and founding editor of Parnassus Books’ digital magazine, Musings, delivers a witty, whimsical, deeply moving meditation on facing down despair and finding joy in imperfection. Philpott will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on April 1 and at Novel in Memphis on April 17.