Anticipation: 9 book-related things I’m clearing a shelf for in 2025

There’s never enough time to read, but that doesn’t stop me from dreaming about 2025’s ample upcoming book and literary events. Here are nine of them that have me intrigued for the coming year.

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Civil Sights

Atlanta’s Downtown Connector was famously routed specifically to kill off the country’s most prosperous Black business district: Sweet Auburn. Civil Sights — a much-anticipated new volume by author, preservationist and cultural developer Gene Kansas — tells the story of this globally significant district. Due out in February from UGA Press, the story is told not only in words but in illustrations by architect Clay Kiningham. Look for author appearances at the Atlanta History Center, A Cappella Books and elsewhere.

Play This Book Loud

Speaking of UGA Press, they’re also bringing us Play This Book Loud: Noisy Essays in May. In this collection, Joe Bonomo explores all the reasons we love music. A raft of artists, including Lydia Loveless, DJ Shadow/Cut Chemist, Green Day and Connie Francis, come up for the author’s consideration. 

White South 1969-1970 photo book

Photojournalist Doy Gorton set out from Los Angeles to the Deep South in 1969 to document what would turn out to be the beginning of the end of an old system of racial hierarchy in the South. 1970 brought tremendous social changes to the region, and Gorton’s photographs captured the seemingly mundane moments as change was afoot. The book is produced by Atlanta’s Fall Line Press, which produces some of the finest photo books in the country, bar none. 

20 years of the Decatur Book Festival

In 2005, founder Daren Wang began the initial planning for what would become one of the largest literary gatherings in the country. From its first festival parade in 2006 to its sponsorship by and then separation from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution to its 2023 hiatus to its revival with an intentionally smaller footprint, the state’s premiere book festival has weathered a lot. This October, it’s promising an anniversary celebration for, in the words of its website: “every book addict, literary lover and young bookworm.”

Sweet Potato Soul: Vegan Vibes 

Jenné Claiborne is a vegan chef, author and blogger with a national profile who credits her vegan diet with a whole host of health improvements, including better energy, a balanced menstrual cycle and clearer skin. Her book is on its way from Rodale Books in February, and she’ll be appearing at Eagle Eye Books. And, yes, there will be food. 

Avid Bookshop lawsuit

In March 2024, Athens-based independent bookseller Avid Bookshop filed suit against Gwinnett County Sheriff Keybo Taylor and head jailer Benjamin Haynes. The bookstore accused them of violating the shop’s First and 14th Amendment rights after the bookstore’s attempts to send books to county jail inmates were rejected. In November, a judge dismissed the claims against Taylor and Haynes seeking monetary damages, but left intact the claims against the book-shipping policy, deeming that it was applied inappropriately. I’m watching the ongoing case, whose implications for incarcerated people and their reading materials are significant.

A book about a color

Blue is the hopeful color of the sky but also the color of deep melancholy. It’s a musical form profoundly rousing and yet born of pain. Louis Armstrong asked: “What did I do to be so Black and blue?” Imani Perry’s Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People meditates on the intertwined history of Blackness and blueness to tell the story of both. The author will be in conversation with WABE’s Rose Scott in February in a program presented by A Cappella Books.

Revival: Lost Southern Voices conference

Every year in March, this conference comes around to explore literature and poetry by his­tor­i­cal­ly exclud­ed, erased or mar­gin­al­ized South­ern voic­es. Previous years have featured lesser known writers in poetry, blues and Creole folk songs, as well as writers who have functioned as educators and activists. The conference has been going strong since its founding in 2016 by ArtsATL writer Pearl McHaney and Andy Rogers.

Atlanta History Center author talks

The History Center never fails to deliver with its ongoing series of top-notch author talks, having hosted luminaries such as Natasha Trethewey (Memorial Drive: A Daughter’s Memoir), Isabel Wilkerson (Caste) and CNN’s Lisa Napoli. This year is no exception. Not only will the center feature the aforementioned Civil Sights author Gene Kansas, it is also bringing in authors such as Michael Vorenberg (Lincoln’s Peace) and Daniel Black (Isaac’s Song).

Cinqué Hicks is editor-in-chief of ArtsATL.