Q & A | Chapter 16

Underage in Margaritaville

Jennifer Holm’s new middle-grade reader captures the Key West of an earlier age

By Susannah Felts | May 19, 2010

May 19, 2010 From the looks of the dust jacket, you might assume Turtle in Paradise tells a sand ‘n’ surf tale of a lucky young girl luxuriating in a beachside resort, perhaps in pursuit of a boy’s attention. Instead, Jennifer Holm’s wonderful new novel for middle-grade readers takes readers to Depression-era Key West, a place that looks to our heroine, eleven-year-old Turtle, like “a broken chair that’s been left out in the sun to rot.” Two-time Newbery winner Jennifer Holm appears at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Nashville on May 20 at 4 p.m.

Human Wrongs and Animal Rights

Carol Bradley tells the heartbreaking story of that doggie in the window

By Wayne Christeson | May 12, 2010

May 12, 2010 “All dogs matter.” This is the starting point for former Nashville Banner reporter Carol Bradley in her powerful new book about unscrupulous dog breeders, Saving Gracie. She calls puppy mills a “national disgrace” and exposes it as “one of America’s most shameful secrets.” Basing her story on a successful but highly abusive Pennsylvania breeder, Bradley describes in harrowing detail how dogs are abused for profit and how difficult it has been for law enforcement authorities to stop the practice. Bradley will read from her book on May 13 at 5 p.m. in the offices of McNeely Piggott & Fox in Nashville, and on May 15 at Carpe Librum Booksellers in Knoxville at 4 p.m. Both events are free and open to the public.

This Doll Can Talk

Rheta Grimsley Johnson talks with Chapter 16 about literature, newspapers, and her new memoir, Enchanted Evening Barbie and the Second Coming

By Liz Garrigan | May 4, 2010

May 4, 2010 A journalist who’s been writing about the South and its characters for more than three decades, Rheta Grimsley Johnson turns the probe on her herself in her second memoir, Enchanted Evening Barbie and the Second Coming. With both humor and poignancy, she writes about growing up among Southern Baptists, her college years at Auburn University, and a never-dull journalistic career that took her from a failed weekly startup with her then-husband Jimmy Johnson (who went on to create the Arlo & Janis comic strip) to big metro dailies such as the Memphis Commercial Appeal and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She will sign copies of her book at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Memphis on May 4 at 6 p.m.

Writing the Body

Award-winning poet Beth Bachmann discusses her work—and the way her sister’s violent death affects it

By Maria Browning | April 28, 2010

April 28, 2010 In her first collection, Temper, poet Beth Bachmann grapples with the horror and mystery of violent death. The book’s powerful, carefully crafted poems earned her critical raves and the 2008 Donald Hall Prize for Poetry. This spring, Bachmann also won the prestigious Kate Tufts Discovery Award, given each year to “a first book by a poet of genuine promise.” Bachmann answered questions from Chapter 16 in anticipation of the award ceremony in Pasadena on April 28.

Beyond the Powwow

Joy Harjo talks with Chapter 16 about poetry, the planet, and how Avatar is just Dances With Wolves in a blue body suit

By Serenity Gerbman | April 22, 2010

April 22, 2010 Although best known for the poems that first introduced her to the creative world, Joy Harjo is an artist in diverse media: music, screenwriting, children’s literature, and poetry. A member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma, Harjo offers a powerful voice for the disenfranchised. Rather than seeming pigeonholed by her Native American background, however, Harjo draws upon archetypal myths and legends as tools to demonstrate the individual’s connection with the land and with other humans. She answered questions from Chapter 16 prior to two Nashville appearances on April 23.

A Spirit That Passes Through

Novelist Madison Smartt Bell talks with Chapter 16 about the art and artists of Haiti

By Maria Browning | April 14, 2010

Madison Smartt Bell, author of three critically acclaimed novels about Haiti, as well as a biography of Haitian resistance hero Toussaint Louverture, is a longtime supporter of a group of artists there. In response to the earthquake last January, Bell has joined with Nashville’s LeQuire Gallery to display the work of these artists, with proceeds to benefit both the artists and Haitian-run humanitarian organizations. Bell answered questions from Chapter 16 prior to his talk at the gallery on April 15.

The Rise and Fall of Treason in English History

By Allen Boyer and Mark Nicholls
Routledge
340 pages
$180

The book “explores the reasons why treason coalesced around specific offences agreed by both the monarch and the wider political nation, why it became an essential instrument of enforcement in high politics, and why, over the past three hundred years, it has gradually fallen into disuse while remaining on the statute book.”

~the publisher