Latest Stories
by Ann Marie Deer Owens
The 2025 Southern Festival of Books, presented by Vanderbilt University in partnership with Humanities Tennessee, will connect faculty, students, alumni and others with university ties to a vast community that shares their love for creative expression. The festival, now in its 37th year, will be at Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park, Tennessee State Museum and Tennessee State Library and Archives Oct. 18–19. Admission is free.
Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs C. Cybele Raver joined Humanities Tennessee in July in announcing an expanded partnership between Vanderbilt and the festival, noting the university’s deepening investment in the cultural, civic and intellectual fabric of the region. University Librarian Jon Shaw has played a lead institutional role in planning for this year’s festival in collaboration with staff from the Office of the Provost, Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries, Communications and Marketing and Vanderbilt University Press.
Headliners for 2025 include Joyce Carol Oates, a National Humanities Medalist whose most recent novel, Fox, is a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice. Oates’ session is at 12:30 p.m. on Oct. 18 at Bicentennial Mall in the Cumberland Tent.
Also speaking Oct. 18 at 1 p.m. is former U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith in the Tennessee State Museum’s Sequatchie Room. Smith, who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for her collection Life on Mars, is the author of the nonfiction book Fear Less: Poetry in Perilous Times.
Other prominent authors appearing at this year’s festival include 2024 Pulitzer Prize winner Jonathan Eig, award-winning fantasy writer Alix E. Harrow, John Prine memoirist Tom Piazza, culinary historian Michael W. Twitty in conversation with Nashville chef Sean Brock, musicians and children’s book co-authors Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo, and more.
The Heard Libraries are supporting several live stage performances. Mary McSparran, curator of manuscripts in Special Collections and University Archives, is organizing “Primary Source Poetry,” in which former Buchanan Library Fellows will read their poems inspired by items in Vanderbilt’s collections. Major Jackson, professor of English, director of creative writing and holder of the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair in the Humanities, will host a poetry reading featuring students in the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program. And first-year students deemed to have created the best interview projects as part of “Stories that Connect Us,” the 2025–26 Martha Rivers Ingram Commons programming theme, will be recognized.
In addition, Holling Smith-Borne, director of the Anne Potter Wilson Music Library, has collaborated with the Blair School of Music to arrange several student ensemble performances: the Blair Jazz Quartet on Oct. 18, and the Blair Flute Quartet, Vanderbilt Fiddle Program (Blair Academy students) and Blair Woodwind Quintet all on Oct. 19.
The festival is highlighting three books published by Vanderbilt University Press: Everyday Apocalypse: Art, Empire, and the End of the World; From the Fiery Furnace to the Promise Land; and Madison: Portraits of Our Neighbors.
Returning this year is the Authors in the Round dinner on Oct. 17. The ticketed fundraiser—co-chaired by Alice Randall, writer-in-residence of African American and diaspora studies and holder of the Andrew W. Mellon Chair in the Humanities, and her daughter, Caroline Randall Williams, writer-in-residence of medicine, health and society—invites guests to dine alongside 40 authors appearing at the 2025 festival.
Numerous faculty, staff and students are serving as session moderators or volunteers to round out the Vanderbilt community’s participation in this year’s event, which will feature book signings, food trucks, vendor booths and family-friendly activities.
(photo courtesy of Humanities Tennessee)
Vanderbilt-related presenters on Saturday, Oct. 18, listed in the order they will appear throughout the day, include the following:
Kelly Oliver, professor emerita of philosophy, joins two other crime authors—Phyllis Gobbell and Dawn Hogan—at 9 a.m. in the library’s Conasauga Room. Oliver’s The Case of the Body on the Orient Express is the latest installment in her Detection Club Mystery series.
Yolanda Pierce, dean of Vanderbilt Divinity School and University Distinguished Professor of Religion and Literature, will discuss The Wounds Are the Witness: Black Faith Weaving Memory into Justice and Healing at 10 a.m. in the library’s Conasauga Room. Pierce has written an indelible meditation on Black faith, suffering, hope and the healing possibilities of justice.
Max McDonough, MFA’17, writer and teacher, and Patrick Paridee Samuel, poet and VU Press staff member, will be in conversation at 10 a.m. in the museum’s Wolf Room. McDonough’s debut poetry collection, Python with a Dog Inside It, traces the lives of two gay brothers as they endeavor to survive their mother’s escalating violence. Samuel is the author of And Another Thing, an audacious, shape-shifting collection that moves through queer identity, pop culture and more.
Mary Bridges, MA’15, PhD’20, a historian, writer and editor specializing in U.S. history and finance, will present at 11 a.m. in the library’s Obion Room. In Dollars and Dominion, Bridges discusses how the creation of a new banking infrastructure in the early 20th century established the United States as a global financial power.
Kevin Wilson, BA’00, author and associate professor of English at The University of the South, will present at noon in the museum’s Sequatchie Room. His latest novel, Run for the Hills, is about a sibling family forged under the most unlikely circumstances and united by hope in an unknown future.
Professor Major Jackson will be in conversation with poet and novelist Jill Bialosky. Her new book, The End Is the Beginning: A Personal History of My Mother, is a lyrical portrait of her mother’s life told in reverse order. Their session is at 1 p.m. in the museum’s Piney Room.
Rick Glaze, MS’76, joins three other crime authors—Jeffrey Phillips, CA Rowland and Steven Womack—at 1 p.m. in the library’s Conasauga Room. Glaze’s most recent book, Eight Pieces of Eight, is set in and around contemporary Nashville.
Rebecca Haw Allensworth, David Daniels Allen Professor of Law and author of The Licensing Racket: How We Decide Who Is Allowed to Work and How It Goes Wrong, will present at 2 p.m. in the museum’s Duck Room. Allensworth investigates the broken system of professional licensing that affects everyone from hairdressers and morticians to doctors, lawyers, real estate agents and those relying on their services.
Andrew Maraniss, BA’92, bestselling author and Vanderbilt Athletics’ special projects coordinator, and writer Jamie Sumner, BA’05, MEd’07, join illustrator/author Jose Pimienta at 4 p.m. in the library’s Caney Fork Room. Maraniss’ latest is Hut! Hut! Hike!, Sumner wrote Please Pay Attention, and Pimienta created the graphic novel Halfway to Somewhere. Young protagonists face novel frontiers in the form of new schools, new teams, new countries, new family dynamics and more in these heart-filled stories for middle grade readers.
Ashley Winstead, BA’08, author of This Book Will Bury Me, joins Julie Clark, author of The Ones We Choose, at 4 p.m. in Bicentennial Mall’s Cumberland Tent. Both mystery books include characters who find themselves far more involved in murder investigations than they expected.
Vanderbilt-related presenters on Sunday, Oct. 19, include the following:
Robert Barsky, professor of French and comparative literature, joins artist Susan Ker-Seymer at 10 a.m. in the library’s Caney Fork Room. They will discuss The Beltline Chronicles, an epic poem by Barsky that honors the living history of spaces along the Atlanta Beltline. His poem is accompanied by multimedia full-color artworks by Ker-Seymer that evoke the layers, textures and emotions of this powerful pathway.
Dr. William Pao, physician-scientist, oncologist and adjunct professor of medicine, will discuss Breakthrough: The Quest for Life-Changing Medicines at 10 a.m. in the library’s Nolichucky Room. Pao offers a behind-the-scenes look at drugs that improve and often save lives.
Kevin Murphy, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of the Humanities and professor of history of art and architecture, joins Mary Anne Hunting, BA’80, his co-author of Women Architects at Work: Making American Modernism. Murphy and Hunting’s research unveils insights into the histories of female architects from 1916 to 1942. Their session is at 11 a.m. in the museum’s Wolf Room.
Shaul Kelner, professor of Jewish studies and sociology and author of A Cold War Exodus: How American Activists Mobilized to Free Soviet Jews, will present at 11:30 a.m. in the library’s Obion Room. Kelner’s book is a national Jewish Book Award-winning study of mass mobilization tactics in the movement to free Soviet Jews. He joins journalists and authors Mark Kurlansky and Elaine Weiss to discuss activists who called for change, the tactics they used, and the effects they made in studies of social justice movements.
Lorrie Moore, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of English and critically acclaimed American fiction writer, will be in conversation with author and editor Adam Ross. His new novel, Playworld, is about a child actor coming of age in a bygone Manhattan. Their session is at noon in the museum’s Sequatchie Room.
Christina Geist, BS’97, author, brand strategist and entrepreneur, joins Sarah Catherine “SC” Perot, BS’13, Peabody adjunct professor, author and university ambassador, for a session moderated by Assistant Provost for Academic Support and Community Engagement Jill Stratton. Geist’s latest book is Before You Fly Away: Life Lessons from Home, while Perot wrote Styles of Joy: A Feel-Good Framework for Rediscovering Joy (with a Twist). These books offer advice and inspiration in times of transition, whether leaving home for the first time, going through a divorce or just needing encouragement. Their session is at noon in the library’s Nolichucky Room.
Megan Barry, MBA’93, will discuss It’s What You Do Next: The Fall and Rise of Nashville’s First Female Mayor. She has written a deeply honest book about womanhood at home, in politics and in the spaces between. Barry’s session is at 1 p.m. in the library’s Conasauga Room.
David Dark, MA’10, PhD’11, Belmont University professor of religion and the arts, will discuss Everyday Apocalypse: Art, Empire, and the End of the World (VU Press) at 2 p.m. in the library’s Nolichucky Room. Some individuals have attempted to interpret the Book of Revelation in ways that seem far from what people experience in their day-to-day existence. Dark draws from Flannery O’Connor stories, The Matrix, The Simpsons and more to present apocalypse as honest self-assessment and centered in the here and now.
Jonathan Metzl, Frederick B. Rentschler II Professor of Sociology and professor of medicine, health and society, will present at 3 p.m. in the museum’s Sequatchie Room. In What We’ve Become: Living and Dying in a Country of Whiteness, Metzl reexamines the issue of commonsense gun reform. His analysis reveals mass shootings as a symptom of deep-seated national conflicts that shape our understanding of safety and freedom, while pointing society toward a solution for collective failure.
Laura Jo Amaral and Stacie Huckeba, creators of Madison: Portraits of Our Neighbors (VU Press), will discuss their book at 3 p.m. in the museum’s Piney Room. Amaral is a Madison resident passionate about building community, while Huckeba is an internationally recognized photographer. Their book is a “time capsule” of art as well as a historical document that captures the heart of those who contribute to the Madison community of Davidson County.
Serina K. Gilbert and Learotha Williams, co-authors of From the Fiery Furnace to the Promise Land (VU Press), will discuss their book at 3 p.m. in the library’s Obion Room. The Promise Land community was founded after the Civil War by people who had been enslaved at the Cumberland Iron Furnace. Gilbert, who grew up there, is one of its revered storytellers and story keepers. She and Williams, a professor of African American and public history at Tennessee State University, share the history of a community that continues to thrive in the face of almost insurmountable obstacles.
Both Vanderbilt University Press and the Vanderbilt Bookstore will have booths at the festival. The bookstore’s booth will sell Vanderbilt merchandise, benefitting Opportunity Vanderbilt, as well as books by Vanderbilt faculty and alumni.
For a complete schedule of authors appearing at the 2025 festival or to learn more about the two-day event, visit sofestofbooks.org.