Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

A Lavish Mural of 1970s Indulgence

I Will Be Complete is Glen David Gold’s unsparing account of growing up in the care of the Me Generation

Glen David Gold’s vibrant memoir, I Will Be Complete, tracks the 1970s, from fashion trends to punk bands, while probing psychic scars inflicted by his mother, a ravishing “Linda Evans”-like Englishwoman transplanted to the West Coast. Gold will appear at the 2018 Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 12-14.

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A Stolen Life

Zora Neale Hurston relates the stories of an extraordinary survivor of the transatlantic slave trade

When she died, Zora Neale Hurston left behind a manuscript that tells the story of the last living survivor of the transatlantic slave trade. The editor of the book, titled Barracoon, is the Hurston scholar Deborah Plant who will appear at the 2018 Southern Festival of Books, held October 12-14 in Nashville.

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The Darkness at the Door

Brantley Hargrove tells the story of a storm-chasing, tornado-catching legend

Tim Samaras, writes Brantley Hargrove in The Man Who Caught the Storm, “accomplished meteorology’s equivalent to the moon landing.” Hargrove will appear at the 2018 Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 12-14.

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Seeing with Twenty-First-Century Eyes

Nell Painter, a renowned historian, finds a new identity as an artist

In her memoir, Old in Art School: A Memoir of Starting Over, Nell Painter writes about learning to see art, and herself, in new ways. Painter will appear at the 2018 Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 12-14.

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Wrong About Appalachia

Elizabeth Catte deconstructs J.D. Vance’s view of a misunderstood region

Elizabeth Catte’s What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia eviscerates the view of Appalachia as a dysfunctional region populated exclusively by hard-headed white folks. Catte will discuss What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia at the East Tennessee History Center in Knoxville on August 30.

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Bally Girl

In The Electric Woman, Tessa Fontaine learns about love and fear at the sideshow

Tessa Fontaine’s struggle against her fears, both physical and emotional, is at the center of her poignant, ultimately life-affirming memoir, The Electric Woman: A Memoir in Death-Defying Acts. Tessa Fontaine will discuss The Electric Woman at the 2018 Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 12-14.

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