A Publication of Humanities Tennessee

Nonfiction

Pulling the Loose Thread

By Liz Garrigan

Boss Brooks is a decidedly untidy Southern story that is both sensational — a small-town Tennessee banker fakes his own death using a corpse stolen on a dark winter night — and quietly devastating, especially for the family he left behind. His granddaughter Kathy Bingham Turner spent years researching what she and co-author Leon Alligood characterize as “The Lie,” a carefully orchestrated deception involving friends, family, and a community willing to believe the story it was told. Turner and Alligood will discuss Boss Brooks at Appalachian WordFest in Sevierville on February 28.

Hard to Pin Down

By Edd Hurt

In What Do You Do When You’re Lonesome, Jonathan Bernstein tries to get a handle on the restless genius of Nashville-born musician Justin Townes Earle. Bernstein will appear at Grimey’s New and Preloved Music in Nashville on January 16.

Word Burglars

By Aram Goudsouzian

In Strikingly Similar, Roger Kreuz dives into plagiarism scandals, past and present. He explains why we care — and don’t.

Finding Holiness

By Sara Beth West

Queer Communion, edited by Davis Shoulders, gathers 13 queer writers to reflect on the meaning of faith and community.

A Cure as Vast as the Violence

By Emily Choate

In the wake of the 2024 presidential election, celebrated writers Saeed Jones and Maggie Smith attempted what so many of us have struggled to do: process events that have unleashed an onslaught of dangers. As a response, Jones and Smith have assembled The People’s Project, which they describe as “a community in book form.”

Parsing American Education

By Jane Marcellus

Jarvis R. Givens’ American Grammar: Race, Education, and the Building of a Nation details the interconnected stories of race in the history of U.S. education.

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