July 27, 2015 “When I first read Thoreau as a teenager, I quickly realized that I had found a magic carpet to my own rural Tennessee world. Henry helped me see and hear and smell my own woodland paths, and my own pond, with fresh senses.” Michael Sims 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.
July 23, 2015 “In the odd, bewildered world of children, we knew we were in the presence of a fabulous, overwhelming personality, but we had no idea we were being raised by a genius of his own mythmaking,” write Pat Conroy in his new memoir. With The Death of Santini, the beloved author of runaway bestsellers like The Prince of Tides, Beach Music, and, of course, The Great Santini, lays bare the origin of his storytelling impulse. Conroy 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.
July 22, 2015 Novelist Alan Lightman is the grandson of M.A. Lightman, who founded the Malco movie theater chain and was the formidable patriarch of a smart, talented, temperamental family. In Screening Room Lightman recounts the history of his remarkable kin and the Memphis they helped to shape. He 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.
July 21, 2015 Alysia Burton Steele’s Delta Jewels is quite obviously part autobiography, part biography, part photography book, and part autograph book. But it is the less obvious parts—Steele’s critique of prevailing beauty aesthetics and her exploration of the intimate lives of long-lived black women—that dazzle. She will discuss the book at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 9-11, 2015. All festival events are free and open to the public.
July 14, 2015 Jimmy Carter was fifty-two years old when he was elected president of the United States in 1976. His time in the White House was, as he puts it, “the pinnacle of my political life,” but they were only four years in a life built of service—to his family, to his faith, to his country, and to the world—that has now spanned more than nine decades. Today Carter talks with Chapter 16 about his new memoir, A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety. He will sign copies of the book at the Nashville Public Library on July 23, 2015, at 4:30 p.m.
July 13, 2015 Humanities Tennessee today announces a lineup of award-winning, bestselling authors headlining the twenty-seventh annual Southern Festival of Books, which will be held in Nashville, October 9-11. The roster includes renowned authors Rick Bragg, Geraldine Brooks, Pat Conroy, David Maraniss, Paul Theroux, Rebecca Wells, Scott Westerfeld, and many others.
