Chapter 16 - Part 11

A Crying Shame

Richard Russo returns with Everybody’s Fool, a sequel to one of his best-loved novels

By Ed Tarkington | May 23, 2016

May 23, 2016 With Everybody’s Fool, Richard Russo returns to North Bath, New York, stomping grounds of Donald “Sully” Sullivan, one of recent fiction’s most endearing heroes. In this sequel to Nobody’s Fool, the gang’s all back, ten years older but no less susceptible to the slings and arrows of hardscrabble life in Bath. Russo will give a free public reading at the Nashville Public Library on May 31, 2016, at 6:15 p.m.

A Story that Bears Retelling

In Apostle, Tom Bissell journeys into the contradictory history of early Christianity

By Ed Tarkington | April 12, 2016

April 12, 2016 In Apostle: Travels Among the Tombs of the Twelve, the audaciously gifted Tom Bissell merges travel narrative, popular history, and literary criticism to examine the evolution of Christianity from its early years to the present. Bissell will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on April 14, 2016, at 6:30 p.m.

Sins of the Father

In My Father, the Pornographer, acclaimed novelist Chris Offutt confesses a dubious legacy

By Ed Tarkington | March 17, 2016

March 17, 2016 Chris Offutt’s father, science-fiction writer Andrew J. Offutt, died in 2013. His eldest son’s inheritance: a massive library of pornography, most of it written by Andrew Offutt himself under a variety of pseudonyms. In My Father, the Pornographer, Chris Offutt delves into his father’s career as the “King of Smut,” as well as his own memories of a haunted, fractured childhood. Offutt will appear at Crosstown Arts in Memphis on March 24, 2016, at 6 p.m.

Asleep at the Wheel

On the launch date of his debut novel, a Chapter 16 writer considers the failures of his past

By Ed Tarkington | January 4, 2016

January 4, 2016 With the foolish, feverish urgency of a gambler betting all he has left on a longshot to win, I tried again, finishing another novel in less than a fifth of the time it had taken me to write the first one. There was a quick flurry of interest from editors but still no publishing deal. My agent—who had already sunk hundreds of hours into my career for nary a nickel, and hence will be my hero for life—remained hopeful. “I have a good feeling about this one,” she said. “Have faith.”

God Bless Us, Every One

With The Further Adventures of Ebenezer Scrooge Charlie Lovett delivers a clever homage to the Dickens classic

By Ed Tarkington | November 12, 2015

November 12, 2015 Novelist Charlie Lovett has found his niche in writing novels that combine his passion for classic English literature with his gifts as a storyteller. In The Further Adventures of Ebenezer Scrooge, Lovett imagines what might have happened after a change of heart experienced by western literature’s most famous Christmas curmudgeon. Lovett will appear at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on November 18, 2015, at 6 p.m.

All the Lost Things

Rock legend Patti Smith returns to the page with an elegiac new memoir, M Train

By Ed Tarkington | November 9, 2015

November 9, 2015 In 2010, rock icon Patti Smith won a National Book Award for her memoir Just Kids, a chronicle of her early years in New York City and her relationship with fine-art photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. Now Smith returns with M Train, a haunting, elegiac meditation on the challenges of translating memory into art. Smith will appear at OZ Arts Nashville on November 13, 2015, at 7 p.m.

Tias and Primas: On Knowing and Loving the Women Who Raise Us

By Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez, illustrated by Josie Del Castillo
Seal Press
304 pages
$30

“Within these pages, I found my abuela, my tías and my primas — laughing, crying, and nodding alongside me. This book is a gift of understanding, and loving one’s family, even when our families are complicated and painful. It’s a beautiful reminder of the power of storytelling and the profound connection of kinship.”

~ Paola Mendoza, author, organizer and filmmaker