Kay Ryan has enjoyed critical respect and a slew of honors and awards, but she was reluctant to accept the post of U.S. Poet Laureate. A literary outsider known for compact verse that marries humor and insight, Ryan talks with Chapter 16 about her work and the experience of being the nation’s designated poet. She will give a reading at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville on February 16 at 7 p.m. at the University Center Auditorium.
As a commentator for Fox News and National Public Radio, Juan Williams is a lightning rod for both the right and the left. His sixth book, Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America—and What We Can Do About It, explores the disconnect between the decisive victories of the civil-rights movement and the ground-level state of affairs for black Americans, who continue to live, he says, “as if they were locked out from all America has to offer.” On February 13, Williams will be at the Nashville Public Library to moderate a panel discussion titled “A New Dialogue in Civil Rights,” which includes Rev. James Lawson, Betty Flores, and Daniel Losen. The event commemorates the fifty-year anniversary of Nashville’s student-led demonstrations and sit-ins.
A decade ago, few Americans knew the disturbing truth behind the factory farms that supply them with breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Eric Schlosser‘s books have caused a wakening in consumers—and are slowly having a positive impact on the very system he exposed. In advance of his appearance at Belmont University on February 15, he recently discussed his work, and his recent film Food, Inc., in an interview with Chapter 16.
In an interview with Chapter 16, author Randall Kenan discusses his latest book, The Fire This Time—an essay collection in which he considers the contemporary African American experience with passion—and in a voice that’s all his own. On January 28, Kenan will discuss his work in Room 101 of Buttrick Hall on the Vanderbilt University campus.
In an interview with Chapter 16, Inman Majors discusses his work as a writer, his life as an ex-pat Tennessean, and his ambitious new novel, The Millionaires. Recently released in paperback, it’s set in the fictional East Tennessee town of Glennville—a city much like Knoxville—and centers on the Cole family’s troubled foray into Tennessee politics, especially the determination of two wealthy Cole brothers, J.T. and Roland, to bring a World’s Fair to town by any measures necessary.
A century ago, the City of Light went dark as the river Seine overflowed its banks. Memphis professor Jeffrey H. Jackson describes the forgotten Parisian flood of 1910 and the massive human effort required to save the city. Jackson will read at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Memphis on January 19 at 6 p.m.; at Vanderbilt University on January 21 at 4 p.m.; and at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Nashville on January 21 at 7 p.m.
