A Publication of Humanities Tennessee

Q & A

A Spirit That Passes Through

By Maria Browning

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.

A Spirit That Passes Through

"Wondrous" is the Word

By Melissa Davis

Junot Díaz won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for his debut novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. This epic is an atypical coming-of-age story about the literary-minded Oscar, along with meditations, both comic and tragic, on the members of his Dominican family. More broadly, however, it’s a biography of the relationship between then and now, there and here—between present-day New Jersey and the Dominican Republic under the dictatorship of Raphael Trujillo in the 1930s and 1940s. While it explores the complicated journeys made by the children of immigrants in America, the book also reminds us, with mesmerizing stories of generations past, that our homeland is never very far away. Díaz will speak in Memphis at the Germantown Performing Arts Center at 10:30 a.m. on April 8, and in Nashville at Stratford High School auditorium at 9 a.m. on April 9.

"Wondrous" is the Word

Loving Norman, and Having the Final Word

By Fernanda Moore

The plot could have come straight from a bodice-ripper: she was a stunning young art teacher from Arkansas; he was a notoriously macho New York author twice her age. Hoping for an autograph, she cadged an introduction, and sparks flew. In A Ticket to the Circus, Norris Church Mailer tells the story of her thirty-two-year love affair with and marriage to Norman Mailer, the American writer as famous for his peccadilloes (six wives, eight children, and dozens of mistresses) as for his Pulitzers (two). Norris Mailer spoke with Chapter 16 in advance of her appearance at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Memphis on April 6 at 6 p.m.

Loving Norman, and Having the Final Word

Creating the Playground

By Maria Browning

Michael Martone has made a literary career out of re-imagining the ordinary, from the landscape of his native Indiana to the college sweatshirt. In anticipation of his reading at APSU on March 31, he answers questions from Chapter 16 about his fascination with place, his relationship with readers, and whether there’s a need for more college creative-writing programs.

Creating the Playground

Danger, Demolition, and Desire

By Lyda Phillips

As both a licensed real estate agent and someone who has ripped out drywall herself, Jennie Bentley writes about what she knows, decorating it in a palate of romantic colors with just enough dark accents to provide tension. She spoke with Chapter 16 about her third romantic Do-It-Yourself mystery, Plaster and Poison, as well as her upcoming real-estate mystery series set in Nashville, before launching a multi-stop book tour around the state.

Danger, Demolition, and Desire

Entranced

By Maria Browning

Chattanooga native Coleman Barks has devoted more than three decades to translating the poems of Rumi, and in the process has turned the thirteenth-century mystic into one of the most popular poets in America. Prior to his visit to Austin Peay State University on March 4, Barks spoke with Chapter 16 about why so many contemporary American readers are entranced with an ancient Persian poet.

Entranced

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