Congratulations, Who Are You Again? by Harrison Scott Key
Every writer at some point wonders how all the other writers have ever done it: gotten a book published. In his newest memoir, which picks up where his award-winning first memoir, The World’s Largest Man, left off, Harrison Scott Key recounts with humor, and, often painful honesty, what it took to get his first book published. From the seed of a dream to the final product and what came after, the Savannah, Georgia-based humorist pulls back the curtain on the writing life in a brand new way. (Harper Perennial; available November 6.)
Nashville: Scenes from the New American South by Ann Patchett and Heidi Ross
In this collaboration from longtime Nashville resident, bestselling novelist, and owner of local bookstore Parnassus Books, Ann Patchett, and local photographer, Heidi Ross, both the historic and the contemporary, the iconic and the up-and-coming are beautifully captured and captioned. Perfect for both residents or tourists, Nashville highlights the places and faces that make this city so special, including the hideaways and the hotspots, the obvious, and the obscure. (Harper Design; available November 13.)
Grits by Erin Byers Murray
Southern food has never been more popular. Or more complicated. As issues of race, politics, class, and gender continue to pave the road of southern foodways, one dish in particular stands squarely in the center of it all: grits. Seasoned food writer (and editor of Nashville Lifestyles), Erin Byers Murray, returns this month with her latest book, a deep dive into the simple dish’s anything-but-simple past. Interviews with farmers, millers, other food writers, and chefs take readers beyond ground corn, butter, and salt and into grits’ historically and culturally significant past. (St. Martin's Press; available November 8.)