Our new membership year began on June 1 so it's time to join for 2024-2025! Please go to our JOIN page and sign up with a new membership form (this must be completed every year) and pay your dues for our new year. So happy to have you with us!
Announcing...Our first, in-person book club meeting (post-pandemic) will convene July 25 at 7 pm at the private home of Linda Harris. Come discuss The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton—and maybe hear from a special guest! Members and invited guests only, please! If you’ve been hoping to introduce a new friend to the group, this is your chance to do so in an intimate setting. The WNBA Nashville book club will move around the city, hosted by board members and chairs in the following months: July, September, November, January, March, May and so on. Please consult our Events calendar for more info.
July 25 7:00 pm In-person Book Group Florida is slipping away. As devastating weather patterns and rising sea levels wreak gradual havoc on the state’s infrastructure, a powerful hurricane approaches a small town on the southeastern coast. Kirby Lowe, an electrical line worker, his pregnant wife, Frida, and their two sons, Flip and Lucas, prepare for the worst. When the boys go missing just before the hurricane hits, Kirby heads out into the high winds in search of his children. Left alone, Frida goes into premature labor and gives birth to an unusual child, Wanda, whom she names after the catastrophic storm that ushers her into a society closer to collapse than ever before. As Florida continues to unravel, Wanda grows. Moving from childhood to adulthood, adapting not only to the changing landscape, but also to the people who stayed behind in a place abandoned by civilization, Wanda loses family, gains community, and ultimately, seeks adventure, love, and purpose in a place remade by nature. Told in four parts—power, water, light, and time--The Light Pirate mirrors the rhythms of the elements and the sometimes quick, sometimes slow dissolution of the world as we know it. It is a meditation on the changes we would rather not see, the future we would rather not greet, and a call back to the beauty and violence of an untamable wilderness. Southern Festival of Books 2024![]() Only three months until the 2024 Southern Festival of Books! Humanities Tennessee has announced the author lineup for the Festival which will be held October 26-27 at the Tennessee State Library and Archive, Tennessee State Museum, and Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park. Looking to help make the Festival happen? First-time volunteers and returning volunteers are needed to fulfill volunteer roles prior to and during the big Festival weekend. There are loads of opportunities from session room monitor and greeter to bookplate sticker affixer and clean-up crew. Please note that volunteers will mainly work outdoors, in all weather conditions, and will be asked to stand for extended periods. We will do our best to accommodate our volunteers with special needs or limited mobility. All shift times are approximately three hours. As a volunteer, you are invited to our festival Saturday Night Party where you will be welcomed, appreciated, and thanked for your time and service to the Southern Festival of Books! Be looking for opportunities to volunteer for WNBA at the Festival in our booth and at our Coffee With Authors event in addition to volunteering for the Festival itself. Both are great ways to promote reading and books in Nashville! Authors in the Round, the annual fundraising special event featuring 40+ Festival authors, will be held Friday, October 25th at the Country Music Hall of Fame. Mark your calendar now! Reservations are required. TRAVEL. FRIENDS. BOOKS. What more could you want?
by Sandy Barker, WNBA network member When my friend, Nancy Dickinson, told me about the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville on October 20-22 last year, I was more than intrigued. After spending five months in a boot with very little “extracurriculars”, I was ready to go, boot and all. I found a perfect Airbnb in a neighborhood that had all kinds of restaurants and shops. On Friday, Nancy dropped by and we went for lunch, and then a drive to the festival location. (She made sure I would know what I was doing the next day!) We walked around the area and determined best places to park and where the buildings, book tent, and vendors were located. I needed to be strategic because I was still in that darn boot. Later that day I had fun driving to Parnassus books to see the “candy.” Saturday morning dawned beautifully. Nancy and I met at our first event, the WNBA coffee with authors. This included Patti Callahan Henry, Sharon Cameron, David Arnold, and Jennifer Alvarez on the topic of YA books. Sharon commented on how YA is a broad space for everyone. Patti said, “ We all have one story to tell, and we tell it over and over.” David was a musician for ten years, and his latest book is about following songs, meeting, and falling in love. And Jennifer said that she knew when she was 15 she wanted to be an author. Next, to an outside event with Ann Patchett and Lindsay Lynch. It was great to see how Ann has nurtured Lindsay (an employee at Parnassus) and helped her promote her first book. They shared about many of the books and authors they enjoy. After lunch, I listened to Patti Callahan Henry speak about her new book and answer interesting questions. She commented that we want the world to have meaning and purpose, so we make meaning. I was also happy to be able to visit different booths – especially the Mercer University Press booth. A friend from college, Mary Beth Kosowski, was there and we were able to catch up. The weather was perfect. The facilities were great, and the setup was easy to maneuver. There were books abound. The speakers were fantastic. The Nashville WNBA hosts were welcoming and kind. And the friendship grew. I can’t wait to back to Nashville this October. I hope to meet you there! I Went to a Garden Party...A lovely time was had by all on May 16 at our annual spring garden party. We had a great turnout, good food, and several new members who joined us for fellowship. It was so great to see old friends and meet new ones!
Our garden party is held every year in May to celebrate our past year and events and to anticipate our upcoming year. We honored our outgoing President Kathleen Dietz and Barbie Chadwick who has served as our treasurer for the last six years. Many thanks for their service! |
We're excited to announce that we have selected a new location for our program meetings! While we have enjoyed meeting at Dalts for the last few years, we are ready to move back to the Green Hills area. We have arranged to meet in the private room at Carrabba's Italian Grill at 2110 Green Hills Village Dr. We will gather at 6:00 p.m. to socialize and order dinner, and the program will begin shortly after 6:30.
Our first meeting will be on September 5. We are currently planning to meet there on the first Thursday of each month through May, 2025. Mark your calendar now and join us for exciting, informative programs for book lovers! Happy Hour FunOur next summer happy hour will be held on August 1 from 5:30-7:00 at the Greenhouse Bar on Bandywood Dr.
At our June happy hour we welcomed new members and enjoyed a relaxed atmosphere for some socializing. Our youngest member, Lauren Scott, shared her new book with us and signed copies. You can learn more about Lauren's book on our Member News page. We hope you'll plan to join us in August! Board RetreatOn June 22 WNBA Nashville Chapter 2024-2025 board members met at the home of president Ami McConnell to dream and plan for the future. In attendance were Past President Kathleen Dietz, VP Lluvia Agustin, Secretary Melissa Collings, Programming Chair Linda Jamison Harris, Membership Chair Catherine Hooper, Webmaster Nancy Dickinson, Southern Festival of Books Chair Libby Simons, Hospitality Chair Caitlin Christman, and Philanthropy Chair Michelle Oglesby. Highlights included the creation of the 2024-2025 calendar of programming, ideas for Southern Festival of Books, brand-awareness campaign, visits from Ami’s Labradors, and an all-hands-on deck salad situation. Many good things to come...
WNBA Chapters Work TogetherHope you had an opportunity to sit in on the Banned Books: What You Need to Know event that took place on May 15. It was an online event that Rebecca Bailey, president WNBA Atlanta, spearheaded with input from the New Orleans, South Florida and Nashville chapters of WNBA. It was an awesome event. The video has been posted on https://youtu.be/TE2EO5ofCWY in case you missed it.
Ami McConnell was the moderator and ensured that the conversation was positive and encouraging. The panelists were provided with questions to help guide the conversation. The questions were:
The panelists were Cheryl Davis, general counsel The Authors Guild, Patricia Glass Schuman, librarian and former American Library Association president, Jessica Nettles, author and educator, Professor Megan M. Atkinson, archivist at Tennessee Technological University, Angela Redden, WNBA Nashville member and bookstore owner, and Linda Jamison, WNBA Nashville member and recently retired sales executive with one of the major New York publishers. It was interesting to learn that the increased activity of book banning is impacting authors when deciding on a subject to write about. There is the concern that the subject will be challenged. Authors put a great deal of time and effort into researching subjects to write about whether it is fiction or non-fiction. It is easy to take for granted that libraries will always be there. Librarians, booksellers, publishers, and those involved with the printed word are valuable to our community. We are encouraged to support them, to get involved by building relationships and to share our concerns. To quote Anne Babson, New Orleans Chapter President; “Your guests were insightful experts, and the conversation helps all of us to be better oriented to this growing problem.”
September 21, 2024 10:00 am Zoom Book Discussion They are the Beautiful Ones, Loisail’s most notable socialites, and this spring is Nina’s chance to join their ranks, courtesy of her well-connected cousin and his calculating wife. But the Grand Season has just begun, and already Nina’s debut has gone disastrously awry. She has always struggled to control her telekinesis—neighbors call her the Witch of Oldhouse—and the haphazard manifestations of her powers make her the subject of malicious gossip. When entertainer Hector Auvray arrives to town, Nina is dazzled. A telekinetic like her, he has traveled the world performing his talents for admiring audiences. He sees Nina not as a witch, but ripe with potential to master her power under his tutelage. With Hector’s help, Nina’s talent blossoms, as does her love for him. But great romances are for fairytales, and Hector is hiding a truth from Nina — and himself — that threatens to end their courtship before it truly begins. The Beautiful Ones is a charming tale of love and betrayal, and the struggle between conformity and passion, set in a world where scandal is a razor-sharp weapon.
Click here to see our Upcoming Book Discussions September 21 November 16 Next Literary Society: August 22, 2024 BAP Fair UpdateThe Books, Authors, and Publishers Fair has been moved to March 1, 2025, to coincide with the Nashville Wellness Fest. Both events will be held at the Nashville Fairgrounds. Click on the links above for more information.
Did you realize there are more pages on our website than this one? Click above the website header on the three lines or the plus sign to find the links to our other pages. You'll find lots more content and information! WNBA Loves Books!
We write them, we publish them, we sell them, we teach children and adults to read and appreciate them, we loan them, we borrow them, we give them, we read them, we listen to them, and we share them with friends. --Lee Fairbend |
Questions?
All events, with the exception of the annual Christmas dinner and the Garden Party, are free and open to the public. For more information, or to request a Zoom code, contact [email protected]
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