No wonder so many writers have made Memphis their subject, this city that changed the world through sound. Now comes David A. Less with Memphis Mayhem, a slim volume touted by its publisher as the “definitive story of the birthplace of rock and roll.”
In his story collection Hallelujah Station, Memphis native M. Randal O’Wain explores lives we’ve pushed to the margins. There’s suffering aplenty, but there are also dashes of art — poets, Dutch Masters, David Lynch — to leaven the pain.
In David James Poissant’s first novel, Lake Life, the Starling family gathers in their crumbling vacation home for one last weekend. Over 48 hours, long-buried secrets are revealed and lives are overturned. Poissant will discuss Lake Life at the 2020 Southern Festival of Books, held online October 1-11.
Sarah Smarsh mixes music journalism and memoir in She Come by It Natural, which chronicles the life, career, and evolving cultural impact of Dolly Parton. Smarsh will discuss She Come by It Natural at the 2020 Southern Festival of Books, held online Oct. 1-11.
Assisted by journalist and historian Preston Lauterbach, 94-year-old Annye C. Anderson describes growing up in Memphis with her stepbrother, Robert Johnson. This detail-rich oral history recounts the famous bluesman from his earliest childhood to his death at 27, along with the long legal battle for his music that followed.
In The Vinyl Underground, a young adult novel by Nashville writer and musician Rob Rufus, 17-year-old Ronnie Bingham is reeling from the death of his beloved older brother in Vietnam and terrified of following in his footsteps.
