A Publication of Humanities Tennessee

To Stand Close and Feel Less Alone

In his new novel, Run for the Hills, Sewanee author Kevin Wilson takes readers on an unconventional road trip with four siblings eager to ask some hard questions of their long-lost father. Wilson will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on May 15 and Novel in Memphis on May 16.

From the Outskirts

Ocean Vuong’s new novel, The Emperor of Gladness, revolves around the unexpected bond that develops between a vulnerable young man and an elderly woman who offers him a home and a chance to begin again. Vuong will discuss The Emperor of Gladness at the Nashville Public Library in a ticketed event co-hosted by Parnassus Books in Nashville on May 18.

Real Powers

In her latest novel, A Spell for Change, Nicole Jarvis writes about three young people in 1920 Appalachia who are blessed — or cursed — with magic. Jarvis will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on May 22.

Surviving Slavery

Inspired by his family’s history, former journalist Charles B. Fancher set his novel Red Clay on a fictional plantation called Road’s End as the Civil War comes to an end but the threat of violence still lurks.

God Is Change

In her essay collection about faith and science, World Without End, Martha Park identifies the uncanny overlaps between conflicting beliefs and gently prods at the heart of them. Park will discuss the book at Novel in Memphis on May 6.

Disaster-Colored Glasses

Making sense of the land mines of life is the theme of Nashville author Mary Laura Philpott’s memoir in essays, Bomb Shelter: Love, Time, and Other Explosives. Philpott will appear with Margaret Renkl at a fundraiser for The Porch at Juniper Green in Nashville on May 2. 

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