Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Andrew Sean Greer talks with Chapter 16 about finding his way into a story
From the Chapter 16 archive: “Doubt is essential to the writing life,” Andrew Sean Greer says. “If you only had arrogance, you’d write a book that’s all ego.”
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In Dolen Perkins-Valdez’s historical novel, a Tennessee root doctor looks for a way to treat suffering after the Civil War
From the Chapter 16 archive: In Balm, Dolen Perkins-Valdez investigates the possibilities of healing the personal and national trauma caused by the Civil War.
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Dr. Ralph Stanley discusses his 63 years in music
From the Chapter 16 archive: When he was a child, he was often called “the boy with the hundred year old voice.” In his book Man of Constant Sorrow, Stanley recounts a career spanning six decades and millions of miles.
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Chanelle Benz talks with Chapter 16 about her debut story collection, The Man Who Shot Out My Eye Is Dead
From the Chapter 16 archive: “When I was a kid, I loved any kind of historical drama. I loved being transported to different worlds, historical or fantastical.” Fiction writer—and new Memphis transplant—Chanelle Benz talks with Chapter 16.
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Tim Gautreaux talks with Chapter 16 about his story collection, Signals
From the Chapter 16 archive: Chattanooga-area novelist Tim Gautreaux talks about the pitfalls of regionalism, the influence of James Dickey and Flannery O’Connor, the challenges of writing short fiction, and the imperatives of religious faith.
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Tyler J. Kelley chronicles great American rivers and a century of effort to control them
The Mississippi, the Ohio, the Missouri, and the Arkansas rivers loom large in American history. In Holding Back the River: The Struggle Against Nature on America’s Waterways, Tyler J. Kelley uses the stories of several memorable characters to examine the history of efforts to tame the rivers. He also considers a daunting future of crumbling levees and rising waters.
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