Parnassus Books is pleased to welcome Leslie Hooton, author of The Secret of Rainy Days, in conversation with Kevin Wilson, as part of the 33rd Annual Southern Festival of Books.
This is a free event which will take place IN STORE on Wednesday, September 29th at 6:30pm Central Time. Because space will be limited, registration is required to attend this event. Please register for free by filling out the form below! (Note: If for any reason you need to cancel your registration, please call the store at 615-953-2243 at least 24 hours before the event so your space can be provided to another guest.) Masks will be required during this event.
About the Book
Growing up in Erob, Alabama, Nina "Little Bit" Barnes Enloe lived in the shadow of her imposing and harsh grandmother, Nina "Biggie" Barnes Enloe. If she wasn't being bossed around by Biggie, then the task fell to her best friend Win...who did win. At everything. Bit never seemed to share Win's lifetime supply of "lucky dust." Perhaps the only thing Bit has ever chosen for herself is her friendship with Avery, the out-of-towner who showed up on the saddest day of her life--unpretentious and decidedly un-Southern--with a funeral casserole in hand.
Bit believes she can escape her grandmother's controlling grip once and for all by moving somewhere where she is the only Nina Enloe listed: New York. Yet her world is turned upside down when an unexpected loss forces her to leave her new life in the city and return to Erob, where she must face everything--and everyone--she left behind. In the process, Bit discovers her true identity, learns the hard lessons of acceptance and forgiveness, finds herself falling in love in unexpected places, and finds comfort in the secrets of rainy days.
Leslie Hooton, author of Before Anyone Else, brings her signature wit and Southern charm to the page again in this triumphant coming-of-age story.
About the Author
Leslie Hooton is the author of Before Anyone Else and The Secret of Rainy Days. She has earned a B.A. and M.A. from Auburn University and J.D. from Samford University. Leslie has been accepted to the Sewanee Writer's Conference, and has studied with Alice McDermott, Jill McCorkle, and Richard Bausch. Growing up in a small Alabama town, think, To Kill A Mockingbird, Leslie became intrigued by people. Everyone had their own unique stories. She currently resides in Charlotte, North Carolina.
About Kevin Wilson
Kevin Wilson is the author of two collections, Tunneling to the Center of the Earth (Ecco/Harper Perennial, 2009), which received an Alex Award from the American Library Association and the Shirley Jackson Award, and Baby You’re Gonna Be Mine (Ecco, 2018), and three novels, The Family Fang (Ecco, 2011), Perfect Little World (Ecco, 2017) and Nothing to See Here (Ecco, 2019). His fiction has appeared in Ploughshares, Tin House, One Story, A Public Space, and elsewhere, and has appeared in four volumes of the New Stories from the South: The Year’s Best anthology as well as The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories 2012. He has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, Rivendell, and the KHN Center for the Arts. He lives in Sewanee, Tennessee, with his wife, the poet Leigh Anne Couch, and his sons, Griff and Patch, where he is an Associate Professor in the English Department at Sewanee: The University of the South.
About the Southern Festival of Books:
The 33rd annual Southern Festival of Books: A Celebration of the Written Word takes place online September 20-Oct. 1 and in person Oct. 2-10, with main Festival events Oct. 9-10 at War Memorial Plaza. Please visit www.humtn.org for more details.
