The Pool Is Closed

“We are the stories we tell. What about the stories we don’t? With her heart wide open, Hannah S. Palmer invites us on a journey of tragedy, revelation, exploration, and understanding as she probes the waterways of Atlanta with her children in tow, in an effort to expose the vagaries of racism and our potential to heal. She does so honestly and with a quiet courage that ripples through these pages. We care because she cares. And sometimes, that is enough. Grab your bathing suit because this pool is open.” ~Carolyn Finney, author of Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors

“Blending memoir, history, and social commentary, The Pool Is Closed offers the reader a stunningly perceptive look at the meaning of race, inequality, and community in contemporary America. Palmer writes with humor, verve, and elegant clarity. She connects past with present, explores many conundrums of modern urban life, and relates her deep affection for aquatic environments. A thoroughly enjoyable read.” ~Jeff Wiltse, author of Contested Waters: A Social History of Swimming Pools in America

“Palmer masterfully recounts how pools became the last battleground of segregation. Beautifully written and deeply felt, with a sharp eye for the revealing detail, her story will ensure that you never look at a city pool the same way again. Nor should you.” ~John Blake, author of More Than I Imagined: What a Black Man Discovered about the White Mother He Never Knew

“Atlanta, and the rest of us, are lucky to have Hannah Palmer as the sympathetic but clear-eyed chronicler of the South’s metropolis. In The Pool Is Closed, Palmer is alternately a mom, a tireless shoe-leather reporter, and a troubled daughter of her native city, telling it, and the rest of us, the truths we need to hear.” ~John Grammer, director, Center for Southern Studies, University of the South

"Hannah Palmer has one of the most interesting brains in the new crop of writers who are re-examining the psycho-geography of the South. She has moved from airports and lost neighborhoods to pools but continues to ask deeper questions about the power grids that mark the landscape." ~John Jeremiah Sullivan, author of Pulphead

"Hannah Palmer is a light in this world, and her important new book is the same. Dive into these stories. Soak up this history. And maybe, going forward, all of us, will swim anywhere we damn well please." ~Kyle Tibbs Jones, co-founder of The Bitter Southerner