Chapter 16 - Part 11

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.

Addressing the Impossible

Joy Williams’s stories skewer the absurdity of our wretched world

By Ed Tarkington | October 13, 2015

October 13, 2015 Joy Williams is regarded by much of the literary world as the most dangerously gifted American short-story writer alive. With The Visiting Privilege, Williams delivers both a fine brace of new tales and a hefty career retrospective. Williams will discuss and sign The Visiting Privilege at Parnassus Books in Nashville on October 20, 2015, at 6:30 p.m.

The World Will Still Be the World

With Above the Waterfall Ron Rash delivers another lyrical and devastating novel of Appalachia

By Ed Tarkington | September 4, 2015

September 4, 2015 Celebrated Southern poet and novelist Ron Rash returns with Above the Waterfall, a taut tale of mountain intrigue that combines Rash’s elegiac lyricism with his gift for fast-paced, suspenseful plotting and his rage at the continuing exploitation of Appalachia. Rash will discuss Above the Waterfall at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 9-11, 2015.

Poet Laureate of Point Breaks

Barbarian Days is an elegant ode to surfing by New Yorker writer William Finnegan

By Ed Tarkington | August 10, 2015

August 10, 2015 In the late 1980s, when New Yorker writer William Finnegan started filing dispatches from the hottest conflict zones in the world, few readers could have guessed that the seasoned war correspondent had honed his reportorial skills by travelling the globe in search of the perfect wave. Finnegan will read from his new memoir, Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life, at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 9-11, 2015. All festival events are free and open to the public.

Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones

By Dolly Parton with Holly George-Warren, curated by Rebecca Seaver
Ten Speed Press
336 pages
$50

“Featuring behind-the-scenes stories from Dolly Parton’s life and career, and the largest reveal of her private costume archive, this gorgeously photographed book spotlights her most unforgettable looks from the 1960s to now.”

~ the publisher