Author and Springfield native Steve Yates will be reading passages and talking about his Moon City Press book “The Teeth of Souls” next week. He’ll be at the Springfield-Greene County Library Center on March 26 and Barnes & Noble bookstore on March 28.

About ‘Teeth of Souls’

The 480-page novel is a sequel to Yates’ 2013 book, “Morkan’s Quarry.” Based in post-Civil War Springfield, Missouri, the story follows Leighton Shea Morkan, the son of Irish immigrants. Morkan is torn between a marriage of convenience and wealth and his childhood love — the house hand and former slave, Judith. According to Moon City Press, the book is “grounded in broad historical research and spanning Missouri’s reconstruction, vigilantism, and fall from grace.”

Reviews

Fellow Ozarks author Daniel Woodrell, who wrote “Winter’s Bone,” said: “Steve Yates searches out the hidden stories from our regional history. Those events that were murky in the shadows, forgotten, or simply not spoken about, are in his hands turned into powerful and fresh fiction. Yates has scope to his ambitions, and talent to match. An exciting new voice.”

In a recent 417 Magazine review, Ettie Berneking said, “The narrative is verbose and not always easy to follow, but colorful scene setting and doomed characters hook your interest immediately. … The Teeth of the Souls is a tale of love, lust, hatred, tension, change and desire all set in the rugged landscape of the Ozarks.”

About Yates

Yates won the Juniper Prize for his “Some Kinds of Love: Stories.” He is the assistant director/marketing director at the University Press of Mississippi.

Event Details

Library Center
Date: March 26
Time: 7 p.m.
Location: 4653 S. Campbell Ave., Meeting Room B
Admission: Free and open to adult audiences

Barnes & Noble
Date: March 28
Time: 2 p.m.
Location: 3055 South Glenstone Ave.
Admission: Free and open to public