Q & A

September 2, 2011 In his new novel, The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, Walter Mosley handles themes of family, aging, and death with the confidence and grace of an author who has published thirty-nine books and received the PEN USA Lifetime Achievement Award. What may be more stunning than the brilliance of this novel, however, is that it was published within six months of both Mosley’s political memoir and the latest installment of his popular Leonid McGill detective series—just one of the several Mosley creations being developed for television, film, and the stage. Mosley recently spoke by phone with Chapter 16 in advance of his appearance at the 2011 Southern Festival of Books, held October 14-16 in Nashville. The event is free and open to the public.

August 22, 2011 In a conversation about his acclaimed novel The Typist, UTK creative-writing professor Michael Knight talks with Chapter 16 about taking on history, the Southern literary tradition, and living with a Roll Tide heart in Volunteer country. Knight will discuss The Typist at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on August 27 at 6 p.m.

August 19, 2011 Born and raised in a Southern Ohio holler town called Knockemstiff, Donald Ray Pollock dropped out of high school to work in a meat-packing plant. After a brief time in Florida, he returned to Knockemstiff and spent the next thirty-some years at the paper mill in nearby Chillicothe. Taking night classes, he earned an English degree from Ohio University, and he learned to write fiction by typing out the stories of authors he admired: Denis Johnson, Flannery O’Connor, Ernest Hemingway. He published his first story, “Bactine,” when he was fifty-one, in the literary journal at Ohio State University. The editor was so impressed that she convinced him to enroll in Ohio State’s M.F.A program. Two years later, his short-story collection, Knockemstiff, was published to rave reviews. His first novel, The Devil All the Time, has just been released. Pollack, who will appear at the 2011 Southern Festival of Books, held October 14-16 in Nashville, recently took Chapter 16 on a tour of Knockemstiff.

August 18, 2011 In Brenda Rickman Vantrease’s Tudor England, life is treacherous for all. Henry VIII is increasingly impatient to marry Anne Boleyn. Thomas More is determined to keep Protestant heresy out of England through imprisonment, torture, and execution, when necessary. And Kate Gough is caught in the middle. In The Heretic’s Wife, now out in paperback, Kate attempts to stay true to her faith and her love, but the times are against her. Brenda Rickman Vantrease talks with Chapter 16 about the tension between religion and government, and the challenge of writing historical fiction in which some of the characters actually lived through history. Vantrease will appear at the 2011 Southern Festival of Books, held October 14-16 in Nashville.