News & Notes | Chapter 16

Another Honor for Daniel Sharfstein

The Invisible Line wins the Lukas Prize

By Margaret Renkl | March 20, 2012

March 20, 2012 Columbia Journalism School and the Nieman Foundation for Journalism have awarded Vanderbilt professor Daniel Sharfstein the 2012 J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize for The Invisible Line: Three American Families and the Secret Journey from Black to White (Penguin Press, 2011), a “sensitive account of the fine line people of mixed race have tread in the United States since the nation’s beginning,” according to a press release by Columbia.

Catching Up With Patchett

Nashville novelist Ann Patchett is in the news so often these days that it’s almost impossible to keep up

By Margaret Renkl | March 16, 2012

March 16, 2012 Here at Chapter 16, we like to post news of Tennessee authors—and authors who once lived in Tennessee—as the news occurs, one news item at a time, but that strategy has proved impossible with Ann Patchett, whose annus mirabilis bestows new mirabiles faster than we can keep up. Here’s the latest news for the Patron Saint of Independent Bookstores:

Billy Collins, Honorary Tennessean?

Former Poet Laureate Billy Collins will give a reading in Clarksville tomorrow night, and it’s his fourth visit to the state in the past fifteen months

By Margaret Renkl | March 15, 2012

March 15, 2012 Billy Collins came to Tennessee in November 2010 to accept the Nashville Public Library Literary Award and apparently became entranced with Tennessee: since then, he’s returned to the state two more times—for a reading at the University of the South in Sewanee, and a residency at Vanderbilt University in Nashville—and he’ll be appearing in Middle Tennessee again this week when he reads on March 16 on the campus of Austin Peay State University in Clarksville.

Continuing Tribute

Writer William Gay is remembered by publications nationwide

By Serenity Gerbman | March 13, 2012

March 13, 2012 The death of Tennessee novelist William Gay at his home on February 23 brought reminiscences and career retrospectives from publications around the country. Most, like the obituary in The New York Times, noted his rural roots and lack of a formal education while connecting him stylistically to Southern literary icons William Faulkner, Cormac McCarthy, and Flannery O’Connor.

Sepetys's Golden Kite

Nashvillian Ruta Sepetys has won the Golden Kite Award for Fiction, another prestigious honor for her acclaimed debut young-adult novel, Between Shades of Gray

By Serenity Gerbman | March 9, 2012

March 9, 2012 Nashvillian Ruta Sepetys has won the Golden Kite Award for Fiction from the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Ilustrators (SCBWI), another prestigious honor for her acclaimed debut young-adult novel Between Shades of Gray. Sepetys will be given the award, along with a $2,500 cash prize, at the organization’s annual meeting in August.

Closing the Book

In a new essay for The New York Times, biographer Robert K. Massie admits that breaking up is hard to do

By Margaret Renkl | March 5, 2012

March 5, 2012 Critically acclaimed biographer Robert K. Massie, who grew up in Nashville, has logged a lot of library hours in the course of writing four bestselling biographies. And somewhere, deep in the stacks, he always falls in love. In a new essay for The New York Times, he explains:

Tias and Primas: On Knowing and Loving the Women Who Raise Us

By Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez, illustrated by Josie Del Castillo
Seal Press
304 pages
$30

“Within these pages, I found my abuela, my tías and my primas — laughing, crying, and nodding alongside me. This book is a gift of understanding, and loving one’s family, even when our families are complicated and painful. It’s a beautiful reminder of the power of storytelling and the profound connection of kinship.”

~ Paola Mendoza, author, organizer and filmmaker