Our Picks For Books By the Banks

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The annual Books By the Banks festival takes place October 11 at the Duke Energy Convention Center, featuring hundreds of authors and artists, and a horizon of book readers. Here are four writers who’ll be present, and the new work that makes them worth knowing.

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The Author
Hampton Sides, Literary historian/adventure writer, author most recently of In the Kingdom of Ice (Doubleday).

The Takeaway
1879. The USS Jeannette sails to the Bering Straight, in search of an open sea passage to the North Pole. No one will ever try it again.

He Said It
“You send a ship into the Arctic in this time period [1800s], something bad’s gonna happen.”
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The Author
Smith Henderson, novelist, Fourth of July Creek (Ecco).

The Takeaway
Montana. A survivalist father, his nearly feral son, and the social worker who tries to help them.

He Said It
“Montanans are pretty funny. There’s this false notion that people in the west are laconic and don’t speak, because Hollywood needed to create a stoic figure that could kill people and still be a good guy.”

 

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The Author
Grady Hendrix, author of Horrorstör (Quirk Books) and Japanese horror film fanatic.

The Takeaway
Classic ghost-horror story dressed up like an IKEA catalog, and a great read to boot.

He Said It
“All you have to do is come at me with a live octopus and an expectant look in your eyes and I’ll be stuffing the whole, wriggling mess down my throat.”

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The Author
Tiphanie Yanique, Land of Love and Drowning (Riverhead).

The Takeaway
Three generations of an exceptional family in the Virgin Islands. Shipwrecks. Shifting class status.

She Said It
“My great-grandfather was the captain of a ship called the Fancy Me. It was said to be such an important ship that when it went down, every Virgin Islander lost someone in their family.”

October 11, Duke Energy Convention Center, booksbythebanks.org

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