Features | Chapter 16

Always an Unexpected Grace Note

Excerpt: People Only Die of Love in Movies: Film Writing by Jim Ridley

By Steve Haruch | December 15, 2017

On March 28, 2016, Jim Ridley collapsed in his office at the Nashville Scene. His heart had failed. For days after his death, you could search the national trending topics on Twitter and find the name Jim Ridley there alongside the likes of Star Wars and Bruce Springsteen. In June 2018, Vanderbilt University Press will bring out a collection of Ridley’s film reviews edited by Steve Haruch.

The Asset

Excerpt: Agent in Place

By Mark Greaney | December 14, 2017

Mark Greaney’s famous assassin, Court Gentry, is back in Agent in Place. This time he’s working on behalf of a group of Syrian expats to secure the Syrian president’s mistress so they can use her to bring down the president’s regime. But the expats’ plan goes awry when it’s discovered the mistress has a baby–the Syrian president’s only male heir–hidden away in a Damascus safe house. Agent in Place will be published on February 20, 2018.

The Whuffo’s Guide to Skydiving

Excerpt: Freefall Summer

By Tracy Barrett | December 12, 2017

Ever since her mother died in a skydiving accident when Clancy was young, Clancy’s father has watched her like a hawk. Between her dad’s rules and her boyfriend’s protectiveness, she’s longing for an escape. Then she meets Denny. Freefall Summer is coming in April from Nashville’s Tracy Barrett.

Jerry Lee Lewis

Book excerpt: Memphis Rent Party

By Robert Gordon | December 11, 2017

Home of the blues, birthplace of rock & roll, soul-music capital—Memphis has been essential to American music. In Memphis Rent Party, coming March 6 from Bloomsbury, Robert Gordon heads behind the scenes to the people and places that music history has yet to record.

Stars of Southern Literature Arrive in Tennessee

The SouthWord Literary Feast will convene in Chattanooga November 3-4

By Peggy Burch | October 26, 2017

SouthWord Literary Feast, a biennial book festival and reunion of the Fellowship of Southern Writers, will feature forty celebrated Southern authors, including Wendell Berry, Charles Frazier, Jill McCorkle, and Ron Rash. Seating is available for talks, readings, panel discussions, book signings, and meals November 3 and 4.

Metaphysician of Daily Life

Former U.S. Poet Laureate Charles Wright will speak at ETSU

By Maria Browning | October 20, 2017

In advance of his return to Tennessee, Chapter 16 surveys the life and work of Charles Wright, whose poems are both accessible and deeply philosophical. Wright, a native of Pickwick Dam, will do two public events at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City on October 25.

Red Dead's History: A Video Game, an Obsession, and America's Violent Past

By Tore C. Olsson
St. Martin's Press
288 pages
$30

“I recommend Red Dead’s History unreservedly not only to fans of the iconic video game, but also to anyone who wants to understand the riotousness — from Wild West gunslingers to Jim Crow to lynching — that darkened our past, and which continues to influence our culture. Olsson’s prose is graceful, his analysis profound. This is history at its most accessible and exciting.”

~Peter Cozzens, award-winning author of A Brutal Reckoning