Southern Festival of Books 2025

 

    My wife and I both enjoy author events and book festivals.  We've been to almost every Savannah Book Festival.  This October, we decided to attend the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville Tennessee.  (website https://www.sofestofbooks.org/ )  It's a two-day downtown affair in middle October, with sessions held in the Tennessee State Museum and the Tennessee State Library and Archives, with vendors, book signings, and performance stages held in the middle, on the beautiful grounds of a huge park called the Bicentennial Mall, and it's been going since 1989.  All genres are represented, including children's, fiction, and non-fiction, but the books and authors generally reflect southern themes, as one might expect from the name of the festival.  Most of the sessions are devoted to a single book and author.  In most cases, the authors do approximately half-hour long presentations or interviews with a moderator, followed by questions from the audience.  There are also a few sessions with 2 or three authors and a moderator, and it was obvious that the panels are assembled with great thought and consideration; the authors and books mesh well with each other.  Following their presentations, all authors go to the signing tent for one-on-one interactions with readers.  At first, I was worried because my chosen sessions were often back to back, and I thought that I would have to miss out on signings, but my fears were unfounded, and things worked out so that I really didn't have to make the most difficult decisions.  

      My chosen sessions were all excellent, and the authors were very gracious.  Several of the authors were even kind of enough to pretend to remember past interactions at book events or through Histocrats social media.

Morgan Bolling and Toni Tipton-Martin.  I haven't read this, but it fits right in to my loves of southern and food history.  Tipton-Martin is one of the leading journalists/writers in culinary history today, famous for The Jemima Code among others.

Sam Kean us a favorite podcaster and author who has a real knack for combining science and history and making it really entertaining.  I love all of his work.  Dinner With King Tut is one of my favorite reads this year.  In it, he learns about, and re-creates various ancient activities.  In the photo, he displays the fish that he personally mummified, using ancient Egyptian techniques, in his guest bathroom (where he performed all sorts of experiments, enough to make me worry about his home's re-sale value).  In 2022, he kindly replied to my "7 Questions."  ( Here ) Read my review.

Andrew Lawler, A Perfect Frenzy.  I've enjoyed several other of his books, and this one was a great read as well.  He also replied to my "7 Questions." ( Here ) ( Review )

John T. Edge is a journalist and author who has devoted his professional life to tell the story of the South through foodways, especially the stories of those individuals and groups that might otherwise be overlooked.  One of his most well-known books, The Potlikker Papers, relates the story of the civil rights movement through the lens of food.  He founded the Southern Foodways Alliance, led it for years, and currently produces and hosts the TV show "True South."  House of Smoke is his powerful memoir.  ( Review )

Stacia Pelletier and James Wade write southern historical fiction.  I haven't read any of their work yet, but I have now added them to my list.

Valerie J. Frey is an acquaintance from her former days as Education Coordinator at the Georgia State Archives.  Her book is a history of Georgia's historical cookbooks and recipes.

The highlight of the whole trip was Michael Twitty being interviewed by Sean Brock, a leading southern chef and restaurateur.  Twitty is a culinary historian specializing in southern food and especially how it was shaped by the African diaspora and slavery.  His books The Cooking Gene  and Koshersoul are two of the greatest food books I've ever read, but they're about much more than food.  His new book is a vast collection of classic southern recipes that I can't wait to get into.

Nature's Messenger is a great biography of Mark Catesby, the first trained naturalist to ever make a study of the flora and fauna of the American South.  His legacy is a big one, yet few have ever heard of him.  ( Review )

    Mega Kudos to the organizers of the Southern Festival of Books.  We plan to return next year and maybe make it an annual trip.  

Savannah Book Festival 2023

     As usual, the Savannah Book Festival on February 18 2023 was a great event, our favorite book event of all. What's not to like? Thirty to forty authors of all genres present book talks, answer questions from readers, and sign books in multiple venues in beautiful, historic downtown Savannah, Georgia, and the weather is almost always perfect - sunny and 60 degrees this year.  Although we were somewhat disappointed by our hotel and one of the food/history tours we booked, it was another great weekend.

    We checked in Friday. The Festival includes ticketed addresses and gatherings on Thursday night, Friday night, and Sunday afternoon, but all of the events on Saturday are free.  Thursday evening we booked a True Crime Pub Crawl with Mad Cat Tours ( https://madcattours.com/ ), and it was quite an enjoyable walk, hearing a few stories and stopping in a few bars on the way.  The tour Guide Connor was excellent, and we would book other Mad Cat tours in the future. (Be aware that you're likely to trip over tour groups and bachelorette parties if you spend any time walking around downtown Savannah. Be careful.)

    Then, it was up bright and early for a short 20 minute drive into downtown and a quick breakfast before stopping in at the Book Sale tent to stock up on the authors' books. (They are not supposed to sign books not purchased on site that day.) As usual, we split up for the day, with my wife more interested in the fiction authors and myself more interested in non fiction. Also as usual, one has to make choices because there will be conflicting sessions.

Here's the schedule to give you an idea.

    I attended Stacy Schiff's session first. A fan of her Cleopatra and The Witches Salem, 1692, I wanted to hear more about her new biography about The Father of The American Revolution," Samuel Adams. Her talk did not disappoint. Next was journalist Patrick Radden Keefe, whom I was not familiar with, but his talk made me want to read his previous books in addition to Rogues, and listen to his recent podcast ("The Wind of Change"- Highly recommended). Gayle Jessup White spoke about her family history journey, the discovery that she was descended from not only Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, but another person enslaved by Jefferson. Ilyon Woo had already written The Great Divorce, a fascinating story of a woman's fight against the religious group called the Shakers over custody of her children, We listened to the audio version of the book on our drive to Savannah, and I can't wait to read her new book about the famous couple Ellen and William Craft who ingeniously escaped from slavery in Macon Georgia. (Unfortunately, copies of that book were sold out in the book tent.) I took the time to meet Dr. Woo and ask her to sign a copy of Divorce nevertheless, and it was a lovely conversation.  We wrapped up the day together hearing from British-American documentarian and journalist Marcel Theroux. Theroux has written in multiple genres, and his latest book, a novel called The Sorcerer of Pyongyang.  He spoke about his trip to North Korea a few years ago which inspired the novel, and his talk inspired me to give it a read and maybe catch up on his fiction and documentaries.

    An exhausting but thoroughly fun weekend. We can't wait until next February.  If you're into books and people who love books in a beautiful setting, make plans to join us! They start announcing authors in October on their website https://www.savannahbookfestival.org/ .