October 5, 2010 Molly Peacock is known as a writer of vibrant, sensual poetry and as a nonfiction writer with a particular gift for articulating the challenges faced by women artists. She shares some thoughts with Chapter 16 on her vocation as a poet, and on her latest book, which examines late-life creativity. She will read from and discuss her work at Vanderbilt University in Nashville on October 7 at 7 p.m.
September 30, 2010 Peter Ho Davies is author of the acclaimed novel The Welsh Girl, as well as two collections of short stories, The Ugliest House in the World and Equal Love. His work has been much anthologized and has appeared in Harpers, The Atlantic, and The Washington Post, among other publications. In 2003, Granta magazine included Davies on its top-twenty list, “Best of Young British Novelists.” He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and, in 2008, was a recipient of the Pen/Malamud Award. He took questions from Chapter 16 prior to his Nashville appearance at 7 p.m. on September 30 in Vanderbilt University’s Buttrick Hall, Room 203.
September 27, 2010 Poet Claudia Emerson explored the painful terrain of divorce in her Pulitzer Prize-winning collection, Late Wife. Her newest collection, Figure Studies, looks at the gender “schooling” of young women and its impact on their lives. She answered questions from Chapter 16 by email prior to her public reading on September 27 at 7 pm. at the University of Tennessee Library in Knoxville.
September 23, 2010 In 2008, Salvatore Scibona’s first novel, The End, was a finalist for the National Book Award—a coup for its author and for its publisher, the tiny, nonprofit Gray Wolf Press. The NBA distinction helped propel sales of the novel, which has become a favorite of book clubs. Scibona’s burgeoning career received another boost in June, when The New Yorker named Scibona to its “20 Under 40” list of young writers who are bringing fresh voices to American fiction. Scibona will read from his work at 7 p.m. on September 23 in Buttrick Hall, Room 102, on the Vanderbilt University campus.
September 21, 2010 Priest and author Becca Stevens is justly celebrated for her social-justice activism: she is the founder of Magdalene, a five-house residential recovery program for prostitutes, and of Thistle Farms, a cottage industry which provides work for women in the Magdalene program. Stevens also helped to replicate the Magdalene formula in cities throughout the South, launch a business for women in Rwanda, found a school in Equador, and establish a nursing program for an AIDS hospice in Botswana. Prior to launching her new books, The Path of Peace, The Path of Justice, and The Path of Love, she talks with Chapter 16 about the intersection of faith, activism, and art. She will discuss her work at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Nashville on September 21 at 7 p.m.
September 15, 2010 Mentor and Muse: Essays from Poets to Poets brings together a group of accomplished writers to discuss the mysterious craft of writing poetry. Poet and Austin Peay professor Blas Falconer, one of the book’s editors, speaks to Chapter 16 about the collection, and about his own creative process.
