Nonfiction

Between 2018 and 2020, Tennessee state officials killed seven men by electrocution or lethal injection, more than any other state in the country except Texas. In Death Row Welcomes You, journalist Steven Hale tells the stories of the condemned and the people who have come to know and love them. He also exposes the arbitrary nature of the death penalty and the hypocrisy of Tennessee governors. Hale will appear at the 2024 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, October 26-27.

In What We’ve Become, Vanderbilt professor Jonathan Metzl demonstrates why gun reform has failed and offers new strategies for changing the debate. Metzl will appear at the 2024 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, October 26-27.

In their debut memoir-in-essays, Come by Here, Neesha Powell-Ingabire returns home to Georgia’s Geechee coast, unearthing regional histories while igniting a path to personal healing. Powell-Ingabire will appear at the 2024 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, October 26-27.

In Cocaine and Rhinestones: A History of George Jones and Tammy Wynette, Tyler Mahan Coe explains how the two greatest singers in country music history balanced conservatism and innovation in a blatantly commercial genre. Coe will appear at the 2024 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, October 26-27.