Andrew Maraniss spent eight years researching and writing Strong Inside, the story of Vanderbilt basketball player Perry Wallace, who broke the color barrier in SEC athletics. Now Maraniss has produced a version of the story for readers in middle and high school. He will launch the new edition at Parnassus Books in Nashville on February 9 at 6:30 p.m.
Robert J. Blake will visit Parnassus Books on February 4 to read and sign Victor and Hugo. His newest picture book celebrates a canine friendship and the sights, sounds, and music of Paris.
In Carve the Mark, bestselling YA author Veronica Roth builds a universe around two teenagers who must confront their own identities. Roth will appear at the Nashville Children’s Theatre on January 20 at 6:15 p.m. Tickets are $27.50 and include a signed copy of Carve the Mark.
On November 16, John Lewis—along with his collaborators, co-author Andrew Aydin and artist Nate Powell—won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature with March: Book Three. But even before he accepted that honor, Lewis had already been named the 2016 recipient of the Nashville Public Library Literary Award, a prize that last week brought him back to Nashville, where he first began his long career as a civil-rights activist. Today Lewis talks with Chapter 16 about his books—and his unparalleled life in public service.
Bren Owen has an unusual gift: he can create exact reproductions of maps from memory. Bren’s creator, Memphis-based author Barry Wolverton, has a similar gift for creating worlds, though he didn’t come to recognize his own talent until much later. Wolverton will read from The Dragon’s Gate at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis on November 3 at 6:30 p.m.
Ashley Crownover invites the ghost of Hank Williams to guide children on a tour of Nashville’s haunted spots in her new picture book, Nashville Boo! She will haunt Nashville’s East Side Story herself with a special Halloween party and book-signing on October 29 at 5 p.m.
