Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

A Stolen Life

Zora Neale Hurston relates the stories of an extraordinary survivor of the transatlantic slave trade

When she died, Zora Neale Hurston left behind a manuscript that tells the story of the last living survivor of the transatlantic slave trade. The editor of the book, titled Barracoon, is the Hurston scholar Deborah Plant who will appear at the 2018 Southern Festival of Books, held October 12-14 in Nashville.

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Home to the Mountain

In Ronald Kidd’s new middle-grade novel, a boy’s journey leads to understanding

Ronald Kidd’s new middle-grade novel, Lord of the Mountain, is set in Bristol, Tennessee, in 1927—the time and place of country music’s “big bang.” Kidd will appear at the 2018 Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 12-14.

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The Darkness at the Door

Brantley Hargrove tells the story of a storm-chasing, tornado-catching legend

Tim Samaras, writes Brantley Hargrove in The Man Who Caught the Storm, “accomplished meteorology’s equivalent to the moon landing.” Hargrove will appear at the 2018 Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 12-14.

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My Work is Done

In Luis Alberto Urrea’s The House of Broken Angels, a dying patriarch gathers his family

Big Angel de la Cruz, protagonist of Luis Alberto Urrea’s The House of Broken Angels, is dying and hopes to make peace with his family before he dies. Urrea will appear at the 2018 Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 12-14.

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Seeing with Twenty-First-Century Eyes

Nell Painter, a renowned historian, finds a new identity as an artist

In her memoir, Old in Art School: A Memoir of Starting Over, Nell Painter writes about learning to see art, and herself, in new ways. Painter will appear at the 2018 Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 12-14.

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Wrong About Appalachia

Elizabeth Catte deconstructs J.D. Vance’s view of a misunderstood region

Elizabeth Catte’s What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia eviscerates the view of Appalachia as a dysfunctional region populated exclusively by hard-headed white folks. Catte will discuss What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia at the East Tennessee History Center in Knoxville on August 30.

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