The Place of Memory: An RPW Center-Sponsored Festival Track

Humanities Tennessee, the Southern Festival of Books, and the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities have partnered for many years to present a themed track of author sessions at the annual Festival event, being held this year October 21-22. This year’s theme, The Place of Memory, features 16 authors including Jefferson Cowie, 2023-2024 RPW Center Faculty Fellow. Also appearing is Drew Gilpin Faust, the Arthur Kingsley Porter University Professor at Harvard University and former Harvard president from 2008-2017.

Across diverse media, from poetry to fiction, memoir to documentary film, history to photography, these sessions explore the power of memory to the creative process. We hope find the conversations to be thought-provoking and engaging. Keep in mind all session are held in the Tennessee State Museum or Tennessee State Library & Archives, as noted on the schedule below. The authors’ books will be available for purchase at the Parnassus Books tent, with authors appearing at the signing tent immediately following their session.

 

About the Robert Penn Warren Center:

At the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities, we believe that humanistic study, conversation, and engagement lead to the kind of unconventional thinking and unexpected discoveries our world desperately needs. We support interdisciplinary scholarship and research in all of its forms. Through our shared activities and goodwill, we work to advocate for and protect the importance of the humanities in a thoughtful and democratic society.

 

Full Track Schedule Available HERE as PDF


Humanities Tennessee wishes to thank the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities for sponsorship of this track, as well as the University for supporting the 35th annual Southern Festival of Books.