News & Notes

Dear Friends:

We are sad to report the passing of Olivia Renkl, the mother of Chapter 16 Editor Margaret Renkl. Chapter 16 will be on hiatus for a few days.

June 11, 2012 In an essay written for The Guardian, esteemed novelist, wine critic, former Nashville resident, and part-time actor Jay McInerney has set out to plumb the depths of the spirit of American consciousness.

May 25, 2012 It’s tempting to begin every update on novelist Jay McInerney—who’s most famous for his 1980s debut novel, Bright Lights, Big City, though he’s written seven other books since—with the words, “Jay McInerney is back in the news this week….” But, really, when has Jay McInerney not been in the news?

May 22, 2012 As professional baseball’s only starting knuckleballer, R.A. Dickey, the New York Mets pitcher, is no stranger to the nation’s sports pages, but this spring he’s showing up on the book pages, too, thanks to his new memoir, Wherever I Wind Up: My Quest for Truth, Authenticity and the Perfect Knuckleball (written with New York Daily News sportswriter Wayne Coffey).

May 21, 2012 Abraham Verghese is a Renaissance man for our multicultural age: an American citizen born in Ethiopia to Indian parents from the Kerala region, he is a physician who trained in New York and Tennessee (and practiced in Texas and California), an author who studied at the legendary Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and a Syrian Christian whose Hindu ancestors were converted to the faith by the evangelizing of St. Thomas himself. In most ways, this fluid sense of identity has served Verghese well, informing a vast array of essays, memoirs, and journal articles, as well as one sweeping novel, Cutting for Stone, that spans several continents and has a page-turning plot most often compared to the work of John Irving.

May 18, 2012 Knoxville is a city that treasures its writers: both local newspapers—the Knoxville News Sentinel and Metro Pulse—routinely cover books and author events; its independent bookstore, Union Ave. Books, hosts frequent readings and book-club meetings; the public library sponsors a world-class Children’s Festival of Reading each year; and the University of Tennessee, which boasts a “Writers in the Library” program and a creative-writing department, has a Ph.D. program in writing that’s ranked fifth in the entire nation for funding. In other words, novelist Christopher Hebert landed in a good town.