This weekend, the 31st annual Southern Festival of Books is happening in Nashville, from Friday, October 11, through Sunday, October 13. Spanning several blocks in downtown Nashville, the Southern Festival of Books is a free festival hosted by Humanities Tennessee each October that brings thousands of book lovers together for panels and solo sessions featuring some of America’s foremost writers.
In addition to attending author sessions, festival-goers can peruse exhibitor booths (including Vanderbilt UP’s booth!) and enjoy musical, theatrical, and spoken word performances. There are also special events for children and youth, local food trucks, and a “Handmade and Bound” marketplace celebrating the art of handcrafted books and zines.
This year, festival speakers include authors Ann Patchett, Paul Theroux, Samantha Power, Garth Nix, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Ted Chiang, Hanif Abdurraqib, Ottessa Moshfegh, Saeed Jones, Dani Shapiro, and Margaret Renkl.
Vanderbilt University Press and Vanderbilt Libraries are hosting a joint booth space on Anne Dallas Dudley Boulevard at this year’s festival. We’re offering great discounts on many VUP regional and trade books—including a 3-books-for-$25 deal on our art books, such as We Shall Overcome: Press Photographs of Nashville during the Civil Rights Era, Breach of Peace: Portraits of the 1961 Mississippi Freedom Riders, and Talking Trash: Cultural Uses of Waste.
If you’re in the Nashville area this weekend, we hope you’ll come check out the festival and visit us at the Vanderbilt UP & Vanderbilt Libraries booth! We’ll be there Friday from noon to 5 pm, Saturday from 10 am to 6 pm, and Sunday from noon to 5 pm.
A few helpful links from the Southern Festival of Books website:
New Series Announcement: Global Black Writers in Translation