Two writers with Chattanooga ties have released new works. Here's a look:
"THE LIST OF UNSPEAKABLE FEARS" by J. Kasper Kramer (Simon & Schuster, $18).
* About the book: "The List of Unspeakable Fears" is described as "a twisty and chilling" middle-grade historical fiction novel about an anxious young girl learning to face her fears against the backdrop of the typhoid epidemic of the early 1900s. The main character, Essie, meets the infamous "Typhoid Mary," the first person in the United States identified as an asymptomatic carrier of typhoid fever. The book's plot lines echo the COVID-19 pandemic - the fear of disease, racist actions against strangers and the distrust of scientists and medical workers trying to prevent the spread of disease. It is available from major booksellers.
' About the author: J. Kasper Kramer is the pen name of University of Tennessee at Chattanooga English professor Jessica Miller. She previously released "The Story That Cannot Be Told," another work of historical fiction for middle-grade readers that is set in the final months of the Communist regime in Romania in 1989.
"THE KING'S COIN: DANISH-AMERICAN POEMS" by Finn Bille.
* About the book: This is Finn Bille's fourth book of poems, following "Waking Dreams," "Rites of the Earth" and "Fire Poems." He refers to this collection, which includes notes on Danish history and geography as well as his biography - as his "binational poems," referring to his birthplace in Denmark and his adopted home in America. The book is available as a free download from his website, finnbille.com. Print copies are available from the Museum of Danish America in Elk Horn, Iowa (in the gift shop or by mail), and local bookstore Winder Binder Mercantile, 40 Frazier Ave.
' About the author: Finn Bille attended high school in Copenhagen, attended the University of Copenhagen and Pepperdine University in California and served in the Royal Danish Navy. He has a master's degree and Ph.D in English from Georgia State University in Atlanta. He lives in Chattanooga, with Jeanne, his wife of 56 years. His poems have appeared in anthologies and literary magazines, including The Bridge: Journal of the Danish American Heritage Society.
- Compiled by Lisa Denton