J.M. Holmes’s debut story collection, How Are You Going To Save Yourself, tracks four friends who form a posse in their teens but drift apart in their twenties. The book addresses twenty-first-century issues, particularly those facing young African-Americans, without sugar-coating. Holmes will appear at the 2018 Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 12-14.
Alice Bolin’s essay collection, Dead Girls, is a savvy mix of cultural critique, coming-of-age diary, and confessions of a pop-culture fangirl. Bolin will read at Novel in Memphis on September 20, at The Bookshop in Nashville on September 23, and at the 2018 Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 12-14.
With The Thin Light of Freedom, Edward L. Ayers casts new light on the Civil War through the experience of two communities—one Northern, one Southern—occupied by enemy armies made up of their former countrymen. Ayers will appear at the 2018 Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 12-14.
Glen David Gold’s vibrant memoir, I Will Be Complete, tracks the 1970s, from fashion trends to punk bands, while probing psychic scars inflicted by his mother, a ravishing “Linda Evans”-like Englishwoman transplanted to the West Coast. Gold will appear at the 2018 Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 12-14.
In Allison Varnes’s new middle-grade novel, Property of the Rebel Librarian, an unlikely hero defies her parents and her school to champion the right to read freely. Varnes will appear at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on September 18.
Set in 1970s Memphis, Claire Fullerton’s latest novel, Mourning Dove, captures its characters’ failing efforts to maintain Southern decorum in a swiftly changing world. Fullerton will appear at Novel in Memphis on September 11.
