February 24, 2011 Ree Drummond’s new book, Black Heels to Tractor Wheels: A Love Story, is both a memoir and the backstory to The Pioneer Woman, one of the most popular blogs on the web. Today Drummond talks with Chapter 16 about the book, which Columbia Pictures is developing as a star vehicle for Nashville native Reese Witherspoon.
February 23, 2011 Literary titan Joyce Carol Oates is known for the extraordinary virtuosity and prolificacy of her work. In A Widow’s Story: A Memoir, she tells the story of her struggle to cope with the death of her husband of nearly fifty years. Today she answers questions from Chapter 16 about A Widow’s Story and her work as both a writer and a teacher. Oates will give a reading at Austin Peay State University on February 25 at 7:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.
February 22, 2011 Like Bobbie Ann Mason before her, Holly Goddard Jones entered the literary scene with a much-praised debut collection of stories set in her home state. Jones is no Mason redux, but in Girl Trouble she does look carefully at the Kentucky in which she was raised, tapping into veins similar to those explored by Mason. Set in the fictional small town of Roma, these stories portray with deep sensitivity the emotional injuries of men and women whose lives are etched there. On February 24 at 7 p.m., Holly Goddard Jones will read from her work in Buttrick Hall, Room 102, on the Vanderbilt University campus.
February 15, 2011 In the middle of Michael Oher’s rookie season as an offensive tackle for the Baltimore Ravens, a big-budget Hollywood movie based on his life premiered to rave reviews, but he was too busy with football to watch it. It wasn’t until a couple of months later, after the season, that he managed to buy a ticket to The Blind Side, which starred Sandra Bullock, Tim McGraw, and Quinton Aaron. Oher sat down in the darkened theatre with a couple of his teammates to watch the movie, based on a 2006 book by Michael Lewis. As Oher describes the experience in his own new book, I Beat the Odds: From Homelessness to The Blind Side and Beyond, co-written with sports writer Don Yeager, he reacted to the film with both bewilderment and “wounded pride.” Oher spoke with Chapter 16 prior to his signing at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Memphis on February 16 at 6 p.m.
February 14, 2011 The characters in Kevin Wilson’s debut story collection, Tunneling to the Center of the Earth, experience emotions that almost any reader would find both soothingly and troublingly familiar, though the stories in which they appear often depict realities far from any we know. With his first novel slated for publication this summer, Wilson, who directs the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, answered questions via email about his work—and the state of things for young literary writers today—for Chapter 16. Wilson will read from his work at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville on February 14 at 7 p.m.
February 10, 2011 There is probably no other Tennessean columnist—nor any journalist in Nashville, for the that matter—who is more connected to the daily’s readers than Mary Hance, known to the masses as Ms. Cheap. After all, everyone wants to save a buck. Hance, author of several previous books, has now parlayed her popularity into a new title, Love For a Lifetime: Daily Wisdom and Wit for a Long and Happy Marriage, a sort of Life’s Little Instruction Book of wedlock. Hance will discuss the book on February 13 at 2 p.m. at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Cool Springs, at 6 p.m. at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Memphis, and at 5:30 p.m. on March 3 at the Belle Meade Plantation in Nashville.
