In The Black Family Who Built America: The McKissacks, Two Centuries of Daring Pioneers, Cheryl McKissack Daniel chronicles her family’s emergence from artisanal construction work as enslaved laborers to prominence as architects and builders with a Nashville-based company. She will appear at the 2025 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, October 18-19.
Carrie R. Moore’s Make Your Way Home is a collection of 11 stories that are deeply researched and deeply rooted in both the American South and the Black experience there. Moore will appear at the 2025 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, October 18-19.
Nature’s Messenger: Mark Catesby and His Adventures in a New World, the second book from Sewanee-based writer Patrick Dean, relates the history of a little-known man and his greatest achievement. Dean will appear at the 2025 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, October 18-19.
With the Pulitzer Prize-winning King: A Life, Jonathan Eig has written the definitive biography of Martin Luther King Jr. for this generation. Eig will discuss King: A Life at the 2025 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, October 18-19.
In three recent poetry collections — Stephanie Niu’s I Would Define the Sun, Richard Tillinghast’s Night Train to Memphis, and Abby N. Lewis’ Aquakineticist — the nonhuman world offers potent spaces which alchemize human memory and reflection.
From the Fiery Furnace to the Promise Land by Serina K. Gilbert and Learotha Williams Jr. chronicles the history of an extraordinary Tennessee community through the stories of its formerly enslaved founders and their descendants. The authors will discuss the book at the Tennessee State Museum in Nashville on September 13.
