Saralee Says
There is no better way to spend a weekend in October than meeting other booklovers at the Southern Festival of Books. This annual event in downtown Nashville is a feast for booklovers, whether you are partial to southern fiction, the latest biography, mysteries and even science fiction.
On Friday at 1 p.m. you have to decide if you want to hear Oprah author Pearl Cleage or mystery writer Sharyn McCrumb, the author of Ghost Riders. The always-entertaining Bobbie Ann Mason discusses her new book about Elvis Presley at 2 p.m. and I recommend the "Sister in Crime" panel at 3 p.m. If you are an aspiring writer there is a panel at 4 p.m. titled "Inside the Book Business with Editors and Agents."
On Saturday, Lee Smith, who once taught at Harpeth Hall, is featured at 10 a.m. at the same time as Clyde Egerton, the author of Rainey and Lunch at the Piccadilly. From 11 a.m.-1 p.m. authors Dorothy Allison, Bret Anthony Johnston, Michael Knight, Chris Offutt and Kathy Pories discuss "New Stories of the South." You can leave that event early and catch another "Sisters in Crime" feature from 12:30-2 p.m. which includes Sallie Bissell and Amy Gutman. Then at 3 p.m., three famous authors will be featured: David Maraniss, author of They Marched Into Sunlight: War and Peace, Vietnam and America, October 1967, Nick Bantock, author of the Griffin and Sabine series, and Mitch Albom, author of Tuesdays with Morrie. As famous as these men are, I recommend hearing Sena Jeter Naslund at 2:30 p.m. Her new book, Four Spirits, which is about Birmingham, Ala. in the 1960s is getting rave reviews as did her previous best-seller, Ahab's Wife. Then hurry over and catch the phenomenal Nashville writer Robert Oermann from 3-4:30 p.m. He always enthralls his audiences when he talks about his book, the Women of Country Music. Nashville singer Marshall Chapman chats about her book Goodbye, Little Rock and Roller from 3-4 p.m. History lovers may prefer the "Studies in African-American History and Folk Narrative" from 3-4 p.m. From 4 - 5 p.m. you can hear Nashvillian Dr. Caroline McGee who has received national praise for her book Matt the Moody Hermit Crab.
On Sunday, Garrison Keillor, who brings us the weekly National Public Radio program "Prairie Home Companion," is featured from noon to 1 p.m., then at 1 p.m. you can hear Dorothy Allison again, or Walter Anderson from Parade magazine. There are panels featuring poets and historians Sunday afternoon. By all means, go hear Nashvillian Michael Sims explain Adam's Navel which was the recent lead book review in the New York Times and the 3 p.m. panel which features local historian John Egerton.
You can spend all three days or even one hour and come away with an armload of books and recommendations about how to spend your hours of winter reading and you may view the tentative schedule at http://www.tn-humanities.org/sessions.htm.
Larry's Language
Saralee left out the very best authors or maybe she was just saving them for me. Robert Parker, creator of the series of private detective novels featuring guys named Spenser and Hawk, will speak Sunday at 2 p.m. in the War Memorial Auditorium. He will be gruff and fierce, like his characters, but a delight to meet because he has been one of the top three mystery writers in America for more than 20 years. I cannot wait to hear him again.
One of our best local crime novelists will be there as well. Sallie Bissell, author of A Darker Justice and In the Forest of Harm will explain why she likes to kill people, at least in writing.
The Southern Festival will feature other writers who reside in Middle Tennessee who are outstanding authors. Civil rights activist Reverend Will Campbell, a true American hero, has written another of his unique books about the humanity of the south: Robert G. Clark's Journey to the House: A Black Politician's Story. In this book Campbell focuses on the life and career of Clark, the first African American elected to the Mississippi State Legislature since reconstruction. I did voter registration in Holmes County, Miss. when Clark ran his first campaign in 1967 and knew him as a force for progress at a time when Clark was risking his life to run for office. Campbell, who is the model for the preacher in the Kudzu comic strip, will speak at the public library at 3 p.m. on Friday.
Don't miss Nashvillian John Egerton at 3 p.m. on Sunday in Room 16 of the Legislative Plaza. Egerton has written many of the most important books about the South and Southern living with his emphasis on civil rights, Speak Now Against the Day - The Generation before the Civil Rights Movement in the South; food, Cornbread Nation - The Best of Southern Food Writing; and families, Generations: An American Family. Most recently Egerton organized, edited, and mother-henned the development and creation of Nashville - A Self Portrait.
State Senator Roy Herron of Dresden, Tenn. discusses his newest book, How Can You Be a Christian and Be in Politics? at 4:30 p.m. Saturday at the public library. With his years of experience in the Tennessee General Assembly and his outstanding personal reputation, maybe there is hope that politics can be as decent and moral as we deserve.
You know how you never want a truly good book to end? In that spirit I saved the very best of the local guys who have made good for last. Michael Sims reads, talks and philosophizes at 2:30 p.m. Sunday about Adam's Navel, James Squires compares horses and women (don't ask, just be there) at 11 a.m. Saturday, Caroline McGee creates a child's world at 4 p.m. Saturday, and Russ Cheatham explains the real world of music at 3 p.m. Friday at the library.
Join us for our next bookclub discussion which will feature East of Eden by John Steinbeck.
