Poet Toi Derricotte discusses isolation, community, and taking risks
Toi Derricotte’s “I”: New and Selected Poems spans over four decades of work by a poet unparalleled in the tenderness and honesty with which she writes about the self, trauma, and memory. She unpacks race, gender, sexuality, class, violence, motherhood, and more, with rich detail and incantatory music.
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Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon loves biographies and My Brilliant Friend
Indya Kincannon arrived in Knoxville in 2001, a self-described “trailing spouse” who relocated for her husband’s job. Today she’s the city’s mayor, committed to “creating and spreading opportunity to all parts of Knoxville.” Mayor Kincannon, a longtime education advocate and former teacher, shares a bit of her reading life with Chapter 16 via our Glorious Pastime questionnaire.
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Jeffrey Jackson tells a story of love, art, and resistance during World War II
In Paper Bullets, Jeffrey Jackson reconstructs the fascinating tale of two French women living on the British island of Jersey, resisting the occupation by Nazi Germany. Jackson will launch his book with a Zoom event hosted by Rhodes College on November 10 and will appear at a virtual event hosted by Parnassus Books in Nashville on November 12.
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Historian Thomas Schwartz chronicles the political life of Henry Kissinger
In the tumultuous, polarized atmosphere of the 1970s, Henry Kissinger served as the primary architect of American foreign policy. Thomas Schwartz examines his influences, ideas, and calculations in an impressive political biography, Henry Kissinger and American Power.
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Clarksville artist Billy Renkl illustrates his first children’s book
Clarksville artist Billy Renkl discusses figurative language, his love of paper, and creating the illustrations for his first children’s book, Diana Farid’s When You Breathe.
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In Occupied Territory, Simon Balto digs at the roots of the current turmoil over race and policing
Simon Balto’s Occupied Territory provides a history of race and policing in Chicago over the course of the 20th century. Balto will speak about the book on October 20 at a virtual event hosted on the Facebook page of the Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change, which awarded him its 2019 National Book Award.
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