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#0006 The Southern Festival of Books

Writer's picture: AlexanderAlexander

Last weekend, we made a pilgrimage over to Nashville, Tennessee for the Southern Festival of Books.

It might sound a little strange, but we rarely go over to Nashville. Sure, we only live about an hour away. It’s a big city. There’s a lot to do. It’s just hard to find the time. Being a full‑time CPA, an author/artist, and a father to three beautiful cats; there’s just not enough time in a single weekend.


The Festival takes place at the War Memorial Plaza and Nashville Public Library. It was our first time visiting both. To sum it up, I was impressed.


My hometown library wasn’t small, but you could have fit about eight of them in the Nashville Library. The building itself was fancy, or maybe I’m just too easily impressed. It has three levels and a large outdoor courtyard at its center. I can't say that my pictures do it justice. For the festival, there were conferences and what‑not being held in some of the library’s rooms. We didn’t have the time to stop by any, sadly.

Down the street at the War Memorial Plaza, there were a lot of vendor booths. Every time I go to Nashville, I’m impressed with the architecture. The library was beautiful, and the plaza was just the same. We walked by all the vendor tents and saw some amazing books and merchandise. I could have spent all day gawking around, but unfortunately, we were on a bit of a time schedule because of a big tax deadline on Monday.






I’m not sure where all our money went this month, but we only had the budget for a couple of books and some food. Abby bought a book by Gwen E. Kirby called Shit Cassandra Saw. I’ll update you on it once she’s read it. The cover looks promising. It’s what drew her to it. Of course, having a comedic title doesn’t hurt, either.








I bought a book by Dana Fraedrich called Out of the Shadows. I don’t know anything about it, but I do know that the author went the extra mile at her vendor booth. The book is apparently steampunk themed, and the author was at her tent dressed to fit the theme. I probably should have gotten a photo, but I think my inner introvert kicked in. Either way, I was curious to see how an author presents steampunk a singularly written medium.





Now for Abby’s favorite part, the food. There were some mighty fine looking food trucks hanging around, but we could only choose one because of limited stomach capacity. Our choice was New Berlin. In front of the truck, we discussed whether we’d had poutine before. I’m certain we had it in New Orleans last year, but Abby wasn’t so certain. So we got the loaded poutine. It blew us away. If we’d not had it in New Orleans last year, my life would have been changed. One of my biggest regrets in life is that we forgot to take a picture of the beautiful poutine. We ate near the music stage and had our ears blessed by vocal talents of Jannelle Means. I’ll be honest, I’d never heard of her before, but her vocals were spot on.

I’d say our trip was a success. Hopefully, we can make it again next year with a bigger budget.


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Gast
20 okt 2022

It sounds as though you both had a wonderful time. I would love to go to this! I have always wanted to see the Nashville library, but it seems that is usually not first on my mind when stopping in Nashville. I will have to make it a point to go! Thanks for all the information.

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