July 30, 2012 Marilyn Kallet, English professor and director of the creative writing program at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, has made yet another splash in the poetry world. Kallet has written fifteen books, and her works continue to be circulated regularly throughout various poetry websites and publications.
July 25, 2012 Novelist Margaret Lazarus Dean may teach in a college English department—she’s an assistant professor at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville—but her passion is as much for outer space as for literature. In fact, her debut novel The Time It Takes To Fall, centers largely on the NASA space-shuttle program. A lifelong enthusiast of space travel, Dean now writes a column for The Huffington Post about the intersection of space and creativity.
July 18, 2012 Alice Randall’s new book Ada’s Rules, part novel, part autobiography, and part self-help book, continues to generate new discussion and appeal as the summer goes on. Ada’s Rules is the fourth novel from the songwriter and writer-in-residence at Vanderbilt University, and it has been met with an enthusiastic reception among readers and critics alike.
June 27, 2012 A Memphis native known for both literature (he’s a novelist, poet, and essayist) and science (he’s a physics professor at MIT), Alan Lightman has a penchant for tackling tough philosophical questions, and his new book, Mr g: A Novel About the Creation. is no exception. A mythical novel that tells the story of the universe and of God’s—a.k.a. Mr g’s—hand in its creation, the book addresses some hotly-debated questions about the nature of a creator god.
June 20, 2012 Former Nashvillian Jay McInerney is enjoying a fruitful summer thanks to his love of grapes and their derivative beverages. A novelist who also works as an enthusiastic wine critic for The Washington Post, McInerney has published The Juice: Vinous Veritas, a collection of essays on his favorite subject.
June 18, 2012 Memphis writer Cary Holladay, director of the River City Writers series at the University of Memphis, has landed the top honor in Ohio State University’s annual short-fiction prize with her book The Deer in the Mirror: Stories and a Novella. In announcing the news, the Ohio State University Press, which will publish the collection next year, wrote, “Cary Holladay enriches her fiction with historical detail, folklore, and regional culture.”
