News & Notes | Chapter 16

And the Music Swells

BookTrack introduces ebooks with soundtracks– and naturally there’s a Tennessee connection

By Margaret Renkl | August 23, 2011

August 23, 2011 In the ongoing duel between digital pirates and digital entrepreneurs, a publishing startup called Booktrack will soon introduce ebooks with sound effects–ambient background music that reinforces the tone of the scene and adjusts according to the speed of the reader. The company is based in New York, but Tennesseans, take note: “Solace,” a short story by former Nashville resident Jay McInerney will be the company’s October release.

More to Say than Songs Allow

Critics love I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive, the debut novel by veteran songwriter Steve Earle

By Morey Hill | August 19, 2011

August 19, 2011 Steve Earle, a former Nashville songwriter, has already received bountiful recognition for his wide range of artistic occupations, including songwriter, playwright, and actor. With the publication of his new book, I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive—released in conjunction with an album of the same name—he’s now earning accolades as a novelist.

Bricks & Mortar

Parnassus Books, the new independent bookstore owned by Ann Patchett and Karen Hayes, has found its Nashville home

By Margaret Renkl | August 17, 2011

August 17, 2011 Former Random House rep Karen Hayes and bestselling Nashville author Ann Patchett have announced the location of their long-awaited bookstore: Greenbriar Village, at the intersection of Abbott-Martin Road and Hillsboro Pike in Green Hills. More news: Ingram veteran Mary Grey James, who knows the book industry inside and out, will be joining the Parnassus team as general manager. The store’s formal launch date has not been set, but look for doors to open in October. For additional details as they are announced, “like” the store on Facebook, here, or follow it on Twitter at @ParnassusBooks1. In the meantime, the full press release follows:

Anniversary Accolade

Oprah can’t get enough of Michael Knight’s The Typist

By Tristan Hickey | August 15, 2011

August 15, 2011 Novelist Michael Knight, a professor of English at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, published his elegant novel The Typist last August to great acclaim. A week after the first anniversary of its publication, the praise keeps on coming: Oprah.com made The Typist its Book of the Week last Tuesday. Calling it a “quiet, heartbreaking sleeper novel,” the editors also included a link to the site’s full review. Read it here.

Sparks from My Hand

James Dickey’s legacy continues

By Tristan Hickey | August 12, 2011

August 12, 2011 It’s been almost fifteen years since American poetry lost one of its greatest luminaries, Vanderbilt graduate James Dickey. Dickey’s influence on Southern poetry—and fiction (we won’t soon forget Deliverance)—endures in countless archives, journals, and anthologies.

Another Honor for Mattawa

Khaled Mattawa wins the 2011 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation

By Margaret Renkl | August 10, 2011

August 10, 2011 Libyan-born (and University of Tennessee-educated) poet Khaled Mattawa has been in the news often during the last six months, thanks to his activism on behalf of the nascent Libyan revolution. Today he is back in the news for a more literary reason. The PEN American Center, the largest branch of the world’s oldest literary and human-rights organization, announced that he has won the 2011 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation. The award, which carries a stipend of $3,000, is given annually to a book-length translation of poetry into English.

Red Dead's History: A Video Game, an Obsession, and America's Violent Past

By Tore C. Olsson
St. Martin's Press
288 pages
$30

“I recommend Red Dead’s History unreservedly not only to fans of the iconic video game, but also to anyone who wants to understand the riotousness — from Wild West gunslingers to Jim Crow to lynching — that darkened our past, and which continues to influence our culture. Olsson’s prose is graceful, his analysis profound. This is history at its most accessible and exciting.”

~Peter Cozzens, award-winning author of A Brutal Reckoning