Alice Faye Duncan’s books chronicle Black perseverance, past and present
FROM THE CHAPTER 16 ARCHIVE: Two nonfiction books for children by Memphis writer Alice Faye Duncan illuminate “what it means to be free.”
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A writer returns to the Smoky Mountains and The Overstory
“The Overstory,” writes Emily Choate, “is like the Smokies — a lush host to manifold inhabitants, some knowable to the casual visitor and others elusive, inscrutable.” Choate will lead a virtual discussion of Richard Powers’ Pulitzer Prize-winning novel on July 18.
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50 Books / HT50, Part 1: 1973-1978
As Humanities Tennessee celebrates its 50th birthday this year, we’re marking the occasion by highlighting 50 notable Tennessee books that have appeared over the past five decades.
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Moments of internal reckoning resonate in three recent poetry collections
In three recent poetry collections by Tennessee authors, moments of internal reckoning take center stage. Katherine Smith’s Secret City, Darius Stewart’s Intimacies in Borrowed Light, and Tyler Friend’s Him or Her or Whatever all foreground highly subjective perspectives in resonant conflict with the world around them.
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A family learns about grace from a death row prisoner
He Called Me Sister: A True Story of Finding Humanity on Death Row, by Suzanne Craig Robertson, chronicles the relationship between her family and death row prisoner Cecil Johnson. Robertson will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on February 21.
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Michelle Duster writes a children’s book about her great-grandmother, Ida B. Wells
FROM THE CHAPTER 16 ARCHIVE: Ida B. Wells, Voice of Truth, written by Wells’ great-granddaughter Michelle Duster, captures the life and work of the groundbreaking journalist and civil rights advocate.
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