A Publication of Humanities Tennessee

2024 Southern Festival of Books

Coal Catastrophe

By Michael Ray Taylor

In his first book, Valley so Low, Jared Sullivan, a journalist who has written for The New Yorker, Time, and The Bitter Southerner, tells the story of a decade-long legal battle for Tennessee workers sickened and killed by the coal sludge from the 2008 Kingston Fossil Plant disaster. Sullivan will appear at Landmark Booksellers in Franklin on October 15; Williamson County Public Library in Franklin on October 16; East Tennessee History Center in Knoxville on October 17; ArtsBuild in Chattanooga on October 23; and the 2024 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, October 26-27.

Coal Catastrophe

A Steely Commitment to Change

By Hamilton Cain

John Lewis’ career in public affairs spanned over 60 years, and he came to embody past, present, and future. In John Lewis: A Life, historian David Greenberg explores how the civil rights icon’s moral compass guided him from decade to decade. David Greenberg will appear at the 2024 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, October 26-27.

Wine, Dine, and Murder

By Abby N. Lewis

In The Professor, Lauren Nossett’s sophomore novel, former detective Marlitt Kaplan returns to university politics when her mother asks for her help in a Title IX investigation of a German professor. Lauren Nossett will appear at the 2024 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, October 26-27.

Duality Is Fine

By Kashif Andrew Graham

In John Vercher’s third novel, Devil Is Fine, a biracial father grieves his deceased son and dying career, realizing that he only understands both through a post-mortem examination. Vercher will appear at the 2024 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville on October 26-27.

Duality Is Fine

Muscadine Vines

By Emily Choate

Cookeville writer Monic Ductan’s debut story collection, Daughters of Muscadine, reveals the entangled historical and psychological legacies at work in several generations of Black families in Muscadine, a fictional rural town in northeast Georgia. Monic Ductan will appear at the 2024 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, October 26-27.

Small Victories

By Sean Kinch

In Jayne Anne Phillips’ Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Night Watch, a group of women from the hills of West Virginia survive the horrors of the Civil War and find safety in a humane mental hospital. Phillips will discuss Night Watch at the 2024 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, October 26-27.

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