Earning the Respect of the Materials
Clarksville artist Billy Renkl discusses figurative language, his love of paper, and creating the illustrations for his first children’s book, Diana Farid’s When You Breathe.
Q&A
The Problem with Policing
Simon Balto’s Occupied Territory provides a history of race and policing in Chicago over the course of the 20th century. Balto will speak about the book on October 20 at a virtual event hosted on the Facebook page of the Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change, which awarded him its 2019 National Book Award.
Same War, Same General
In Down Along with That Devil’s Bones, Connor Towne O’Neill explores the battles over Nathan Bedford Forrest monuments in Nashville, Murfreesboro, Memphis, and Selma, Alabama, in a quest to understand how white supremacy continues to shape American society. O’Neill will appear at a virtual event hosted by Novel in Memphis on September 29 and at the 2020 Southern Festival of Books, held online October 1-11.
Surviving the Curse of “Nowville”
In Greetings from New Nashville, a collection of essays edited by Steve Haruch, contributors grapple with the rise of the city as a tourist destination and the municipal issues that have arisen as a result. Haruch will discuss Greetings from New Nashville at the 2020 Southern Festival of Books, held online October 1-11.
Another Way to Be
Michael Ian Black’s A Better Man is a tender, funny, hopeful book, conceived as a letter to his 18-year-old son. Through a mix of memoir, comic commentary, and fatherly advice, Black makes the case against the cultural pressures that harm men, from impossible ideals of strength and independence to damaging rhetoric about toxic masculinity. Black will appear at the 2020 Southern Festival of Books, held online October 1-11.
Dreams and Nightmares
In The Fire Is Upon Us, Nicholas Buccola tells the story of the famous Cambridge Union confrontation between James Baldwin and William F. Buckley, revealing both the roots of our current racial dilemmas and the experiences of these two significant intellectuals. Buccola will join a virtual conversation with Terrence Tucker of the University of Memphis on September 24.
