Q & A | Chapter 16

Bake and Date

Audrey Shulman’s Sitting in Bars with Cake is an illustrated memoir-cum-cookbook about attempting to bake her way into a boyfriend’s heart

By Sarah Norris | March 30, 2015

March 30, 2015 In 2013, Nashville native Audrey Shulman set out on an unconventional quest for a boyfriend. Over the course of a year, she came up with original recipes for fifty different cakes, which she took to fifty different bars, proffering slices to dozens of romantic prospects. She details the results in her first book, Sitting in Bars with Cake. Shulman will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on April 4, 2015, at 1 p.m.

Making a Necessity of Memory

Poet Natasha Trethewey talks about history, her work, her biracial identity, and the violence in her past

By Maria Browning | March 16, 2015

March 16, 2015 Natasha Trethewey won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 2007 for her third book, Native Guard, which explores the complex interplay of personal and collective history. Natasha Trethewey will give a reading at Vanderbilt University in Nashville on March 19, 2015, at 7 p.m. The event, which will be held in Wilson Hall Room 126, is free and open to the public.

Poetry in the Air

On the weekly radio show “Difficult Listening,” David M. Harris shares poetry, music, world news, advice, and memories

By Sarah Norris | March 13, 2015

March 13, 2014 Broadcast on Sunday mornings from 10 a.m. to noon, Radio Free Nashville’s “Difficult Listening” program is hosted by David M. Harris. The show centers on poetry: Harris, a writer himself, reads poems on the air and offers his own interpretations.

Fiction as Autobiography

Claire Vaye Watkins talks with novelist Adam Ross about her celebrated debut story collection, Battleborn

By Adam Ross | March 9, 2015

March 9, 2015 Claire Vaye Watkins, writes novelist Adam Ross, has “known the worst kind of loss. She’s also transformed it into startling, original fiction.” Watkins will appear at Vanderbilt University on March 12, 2015, at 7 p.m. This event, part of the Vanderbilt Visiting Writers Series, is free and open to the public.

Like a Sculptor

Amy Hoffman talks with Chapter 16 about her memoirs, Lies About My Family, An Army of Ex-Lovers, and Hospital Time

By Simone Wolff | February 17, 2015

February 17, 2015 Amy Hoffman has two families: the one she was born into, and the one she’s chosen along the way. Her memoirs tell both family histories with humor, honesty, and tenderness. Hoffman will give a free public reading in Nashville at Vanderbilt University’s Calhoun Hall, Room 109, on February 24, 2015, at 7 p.m.

It Wasn’t Strange at the Time

Adam Ross talks with Chapter 16 about his forthcoming novel, Playworld

By Margaret Renkl | February 10, 2015

February 10, 2015 Chapter 16 talks with Adam Ross, bestselling author of Mr. Peanut and Ladies and Gentlemen, about his work-in-progress, the story of a year in the life of a child actor. Ross will give a free public reading at the University of Tennessee’s Hodges Library in Knoxville on February 16, 2015, at 7 p.m.

Camilla and the Caterpillars

By Frances Figart, illustrated by Matt Brass
Smokies Life
68 pages
$14.95

A young girl’s encounter with an extraordinary caterpillar in the Great Smoky Mountains leads her and her family on a quest to plant a national park right in their own backyard.

This environmentally themed chapter book for ages 6 through 11 introduces young readers to important ecological concepts including habitat loss and the interdependence of native species and offers a compelling grassroots solution through native-plant gardening that invites anyone to take part in addressing the growing biodiversity crisis.

~the publisher