Celebrating the written word with the Southern Festival of Books

This weekend, the Southern Festival of Books returns for its 34th year. It’s also the first time back in person since 2019. This beloved institution has gone through some challenging times to get back to this point. What can attendees expect this year? And what does this literary festival mean to the cultural life of our city? We’ll talk with organizers and longtime attendees about literary Nashville’s biggest event, and we’ll meet four authors who will be appearing. Interested in checking it out? The full list of authors is here, and the full daily schedule is here. But first, we respond to listener feedback in our weekly @ Us! segment, one day earlier than usual. Guests: Serenity Gerbman, director of Southern Festival of Books Gloria Ballard, festival host Alana White, author of The Hearts of All on Fire Major Jackson, author of A Beat Beyond and Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair in the Humanities at Vanderbilt University Francesca Royer, author of Black Country Music and professor of English at DePaul University Zaid Brifkani, author of The Mountains We Carry