In his latest poetry collection, Dear Mothership, Marcus Wicker lets us chart planet Earth as though we were aliens. Fueled by a lyricism that feels at once like rap, jazz, and funk, these poems consider what it means to be human, seen through an extraterrestrial lens. Wicker will discuss the book at Novel in Memphis on September 8.
In her second poetry collection, Black Lake, Emily Skaja recalls a year of miscarriages and deep grief. Skaja will discuss the book at Novel in Memphis on September 8.
With Maybe the Body, a delightfully ambitious and formally adventurous poetry collection, Asa Drake urges readers toward liminal spaces. Drake will appear at the 2026 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville on October 17-18.
A Buyer’s Guide to the Afterlife, the new poetry collection from Knoxville writer Erica Wright, chronicles the restless search for orientation in a world that seems unmoored, half-familiar, and utterly foreign.
We like our characters in the South, and Maggi Vaughn was one of the great characters of our time. The Poet Laureate of Tennessee since 1995, Maggi was a poet, storyteller, songwriter, and art collector who lived out a big life in a small town. With her recent passing, we at Humanities Tennessee feel the loss of a member of the Southern Festival of Books family.
Jeff Hardin’s latest poetry collection, Coming into an Inheritance, offers a balm for our chaotic times through poems that convey the grace of nature and the power of art.
