A Publication of Humanities Tennessee

Making Beautiful Stories

October 9, 2015 Twenty-seven years ago, if you had asked me about the best time to visit Nashville, I would have said the second weekend in October—the weekend of the Southern Festival of Books. It’s a guaranteed good time. Rain or shine. At the festival, just showing up to hear the same author is considered invitation enough to engage your seatmate in conversation. Attending the Southern Festival of Books is the closest a visitor can come to being an instant insider in Nashville, where the New South begins. If you asked me that question today, I would say the same damn thing.

The Thread Box

The Thread Box

The Thread Box

June Hall McCash

Twin Oaks Press
110 pages
$12

“The poetry in The Thread Box demonstrates the same literary perfection that made McCash an award-winning novelist. Her verse casts vivid images in soft rhythms and reminds us of the things that make us human.”

–Philip M. Mathis

“Acknowledge”

September 28, 2015 The Contributor is a weekly nonprofit street newspaper distributed by homeless and formerly homeless citizens of Nashville, who keep all profits made from their sales. On October 3, 2015, at 7 p.m., Third Man Books will host “An Evening with Poets from The Contributor,” a poetry reading to launch Acknowledge: An Anthology of Selected Poems from The Contributor, a new collection of the best vendor-contributed poems which have appeared in the newspaper during the last seven years and published as a fundraiser for The Contributor. The event is free; a copy of the book will be given to all donors who contribute $20 or more.

Equilibrium Might Be a Little Hard to Manage Today, Actually

September 15, 2015 “Equilibrium” by Tiana Clark, a first-year graduate student in Vanderbilt University’s M.F.A program in creative writing has won first prize in the annual poetry competition sponsored by the literary magazine Rattle. The award carries a stipend of $10,000.

Deep Lane

Deep Lane

Deep Lane

Mark Doty

W. W. Norton & Company
96 pages
$25.95

“Deep Lane is a book of descents: into the earth beneath the garden, into the dark substrata of a life. But these poems seek repair, finally, through the possibilities that sustain the speaker aboveground: gardens and animals, the pleasure of seeing, the world tuned by the word.”

–From the publisher

Empty Houses and American Renditions

Empty Houses and American Renditions

Empty Houses and American Renditions

Ralph Monday

Aldrich Press
138 pages
$17

“This book captures the intensity of absence in the most profound and beautiful way. Ralph Monday is a remarkable wordsmith. Empty Houses and American Renditions will trigger emotions you never knew you could feel.”

—Jessica Bell, publisher of Vine Leaves Literary Journal

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