Lee Smith discusses the challenges and pleasures of writing—and living—over the long haul
Fueled by empathy, precision, and wit, Lee Smith’s fiction opens up the interior worlds of characters whose depths we might least expect, given the everyday circumstances of their Southern lives. Smith spoke with Chapter 16 about her lifelong pursuit of stories that thrive on healthy doses of surprise, conflict, and mischief.
Read more
Jane Hirshfield talks with Chapter 16 about poetry’s timelessness, camouflage in nature, and why she doesn’t need to be “pop-culture hip”
Celebrated poet Jane Hirshfield talks with Chapter 16 about her new poetry collection, The Beauty, and her new essay collection, Ten Windows: How Great Poems Transform the World.
Read more
Smyrna native Ellen B. Meacham chronicles Robert F. Kennedy’s crusade against poverty
In Delta Epiphany, Ellen B. Meacham chronicles Robert F. Kennedy’s 1967 visit to the Mississippi Delta, which spurred his efforts to eradicate hunger in America. Meacham will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on June 27.
Read more
U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith talks about inspiration, personal reflection, and recitation
To contemplate the afterlife might seem like a pointless exercise: what can we really know of such matters? When U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith was writing her Pulitzer Prize-winning collection, Life On Mars, she learned that fulfillment could be found in the contemplation itself. Smith will deliver the Willis Plenary Address at the 2018 Christian Scholars’ Conference held at Lipscomb University in Nashville June 6-8.
Read more
Mary Gauthier talks with Chapter 16 about becoming your own witness
While touring to support Rifles and Rosary Beads, her new album co-written with American veterans, Nashville songwriter Mary Gauthier signed a book deal with St. Martin’s Press to tell her own story of trauma and recovery.
Read more
Susan Eaddy and Jessica Young compare notes on creating books for very young children
Nashville authors Susan Eaddy and Jessica Young will launch their new children’s books, Poppy’s Best Babies, Play This Book, and Pet This Book, at Parnassus Books in Nashville on May 20.
Read more
