Memphis writer Jamey Hatley wins two national grants for work in progress
Jamey Hatley has received a total of $55,000 this year from the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer’s Award and the National Endowment for the Arts to work on her first novel, The Dream-Singers. The book is set in Memphis, beginning with the birth of twins in 1968—one born as Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his final speech and the other when he is assassinated.
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Virginia Reeves explores the way a passion for work can imprison the worker
In her debut novel, Work Like Any Other, Virginia Reeves explores the nature of work, how it defines and shapes families. Reeves will appear at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 14-16.
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Helen Ellis dishes on poker, Twitter, and American Housewife
Whether she’s cracking “Southern Lady Code,” chronicling a neighborly dispute that metastasizes into an epic battle, or skewering the conventions of reality television, Helen Ellis manages to be both outrageous and utterly believable. Ellis will discuss American Housewife at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 14-16.
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In Robert Olen Butler’s Perfume River, Vietnam haunts soldiers and their families decades after the war
In Robert Olen Butler’s new novel, Perfume River, the past is very much present as an aging history professor struggles to shake traumatic memories of the Vietnam War and the way it tore his family apart. Butler will discuss Perfume River at Crosstown Arts in Memphis on October 13 at 6 p.m., and also at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 14-16.
An overscheduled woman walks out on her life in Gayle Forman’s Leave Me
Gayle Forman’s first novel for adults, Leave Me, takes a hard look at love, life choices, and the reasons women stay in difficult relationships. Forman will appear at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 14-16. Festival events are free and open to the public.
Megan Abbott’s latest novel mines gymnastics to menacing effect
You Will Know Me, the latest novel from suspense master Megan Abbott, focuses on a gymnastics prodigy and her family as they grapple with an unexpected and tragic accident. Abbott will appear at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 14-16.
