A Shining Thing
Ayad Akhtar’s The Radiance is a story about memory, knowledge, academia, and desire. Akhtar will appear at the 2026 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville on October 17-18.
Fiction
Haunted
Lydia Mathis’ debut story collection, Desperate Bodies, lives at the perilous fault lines of contemporary girls’ and women’s lives, particularly those of Black girls and women. Mathis will discuss Desperate Bodies at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville on October 17-18.
Age-Old Struggles, Modern Absurdity
With her sophomore novel, Clutch, Emily Nemens joins the ranks of creatives dissecting the challenges of womanhood and motherhood. The novel begins and ends with the reunion of five women who were once college roommates and are now long-distance best friends all turning 40. Nemens will appear at the 2026 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville on October 17-18.
A Grave or a Garden
In his latest Southern crime novel, award-winning author Henry Wise grapples with the violent history of an impoverished small town. Wise will appear at at Trezevant Manor in Memphis on September 8 and the 2026 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville on October 17-18.
Taming The Beast
In Alan Gratz’s new middle-grade novel, Flight: A Story of Seeking Refuge, 13-year-old Daniella Lopez and her 9-year-old brother Carlos travel north from their home in Honduras in search of a better life.
I Am in Between
In All the Sunshine in the World, her third middle-grade novel in verse, Nashville poet and educator Caroline Brooks Dubois once again examines the aftermath of tragedy in the life of a young girl. This time, her subject is the sudden, shocking loss of a sibling. The author will appear at the 2026 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville on October 17-18.
