On April 11 and 12, East Tennessee State University in Johnson City will host its second annual literary festival, offering a slate of workshops, readings, and genre-focused craft presentations. The event culminates with a keynote address by celebrated poet Ishion Hutchinson. All festival events are free and open to the public.
Jami Attenberg’s All Grown Up tells the story of a single woman negotiating the trials of adulthood in New York City. Attenberg will discuss her sixth novel at Parnassus Books in Nashville on April 11 at 6:30 p.m.
“The threat to the narrator may be existential in nature but it’s still a threat,” Jenny Offill says of her novel Dept. of Speculation. “Her life is falling down around her.” Offill will read at Vanderbilt University in Nashville on April 6 at 7 p.m.
Hari Kunzru’s White Tears is a literary thriller and a ghost story that deals directly with race, privilege, and American history. Kunzru will appear with musical guest Patrick Sweany at The Basement in Nashville on March 30 at 7 p.m., as part of the Books, Bars and Guitars series sponsored by Parnassus Books and The Porch Writers’ Collective.
In Hannah Tinti’s The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley, a father with a long criminal history settles down with his daughter on the Massachusetts coast in a futile search for normalcy. Tinti will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on March 29 at 6:30 p.m.
With Mississippi Blood Greg Iles brings his epic trilogy of old violence and present-day loyalties to a thundering conclusion. Iles will appear on March 24 at the Memphis Public Library and on March 25 at the Nashville Public Library. Both events are free and open to the public.
