Q & A

March 8, 2012 Robert Goolrick’s forthcoming second novel, Heading Out to Wonderful, begins with the arrival of a mysterious stranger, Charlie Beale, in a quiet Virginia town during the summer of 1948. Beale brings with him two suitcases—the first filled with knives and the second with money—and a powerful desire that “things would finally turn out better, and that this would be the place he could feel at home.” The book isn’t due in stores until June, but Goolrick will read from it on March 15 at 6 p.m. as part of Algonquin Book Club Night at Parnassus Books in Nashville.

March 1, 2012 Silas House, the former writer-in-residence at Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tennessee, has long been an activist on behalf of Appalachian environmental causes. Today he talks with novelist Barbara Kingsolver about a benefit appearance she’s making in Knoxville next week to support the Scenic Vistas Protection Act, a bill proposed by the Lindquist Environmental Appalachian Fellowship (LEAF), that would protect ridges above 2,000 feet from being removed by surface coal mining. Barbara Kingsolver and Kathy Mattea present “A View from the Mountaintop” at the Bijou Theatre in Knoxville on March 11. Click here for event details and here for more information, including videos, about mountain-top removal mining.

February 24, 2012 Josh Weil’s fearless introspection and his gift for creating layers of complexity in his characters permeate the pages of his award-winning first collection of novellas, The New Valley. Set in the rural environs of the New River Valley between Virginia and West Virginia, Weil’s stories are written in graceful, haunting prose that masterfully evokes the beautiful but isolated and unforgiving nature of rural AppalachiaOn February 27 at 7 p.m., Weil will give a reading in the Hodges Library Auditorium on the Knoxville campus of the University of Tennessee. Click here for more details.