Nonfiction

August 18, 2015 Jena Lee Nardella’s memoir, One Thousand Wells, tells the story of how she—along with members of the Christian rock band Jars of Clay—founded Blood:Water, a nonprofit organization that advocates for AIDS clinics and clean water in African communities. On August 24, 2015, at 6:15 p.m. Nardella will appear at the Nashville Public Library in conversation with Dan Haseltine, the lead singer of Jars of Clay. She will also appear at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville, on August 26, 2015, at 6 p.m. Both events are free and open to the public.

August 13, 2015 David Payne has always written about his family’s adversities, though only through the veil of fiction. In his new memoir, Barefoot to Avalon, he steps around the curtain to tell the real story of his brother’s death and his family’s history of self-destruction. Payne will appear at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 9-11, 2015. All festival events are free and open to the public.

August 10, 2015 In the late 1980s, when New Yorker writer William Finnegan started filing dispatches from the hottest conflict zones in the world, few readers could have guessed that the seasoned war correspondent had honed his reportorial skills by travelling the globe in search of the perfect wave. Finnegan will read from his new memoir, Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life, at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 9-11, 2015. All festival events are free and open to the public.

August 7, 2015 Azar Nafisi is a devout believer, to put it mildly, in the transformative power of literature. In her 2003 bestseller, Reading Lolita in Tehran, books are a spiritual lifeline amid the horrific violence and repression of post-revolutionary Iran. In The Republic of Imagination: A Life in Books she considers whether they can serve a similarly critical purpose here. Nafisi will appear at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 9-11, 2015. All festival events are free and open to the public.

August 4, 2015 What happens when a gay editor in his fifties leaves New York City to care for his ninety-year-old mother in the dying town of Paris, Missouri? In George Hodgman’s elegant memoir, Bettyville, the result is humor, a monumental battle of wills, and a moving reflection on the meaning of family. Hodgman will discuss Bettyville at the twenty-seventh annual Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 9-11, 2015. All festival events are free and open to the public.

July 28, 2015 Soul Food Love, the new cookbook memoir by Alice Randall and Caroline Randall Williams, is an elegy for the foods that nourished their ancestors, as well as an up-to-the-minute collection of flavor-forward recipes for sustainable, healthful eating. The mother-daughter duo will appear at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 9-11, 2015. All festival events are free and open to the public..