Chapter 16 - Part 12

Love and Money in Wartime

Lydia Peelle’s debut novel, The Midnight Cool, is a tale of two Tennessee horse traders during World War I

By Maria Browning | January 4, 2017

In Lydia Peelle’s debut novel, The Midnight Cool, a pair of itinerant horse traders is drawn into a web of mystery, love, and opportunity as WWI throws the country into turmoil. Peelle will read from the book at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis on January 16, Parnassus Books in Nashville on January 21, and at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on February 10. At each event, Peelle’s husband, Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show, will perform music from the era.

Preparing for Change

In Seeds on Ice, Memphis native Cary Fowler explains the need for a global seed vault

By Maria Browning | December 1, 2016

Cary Fowler is the driving force behind the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a storehouse of genetic diversity located beneath the icy landscape of northernmost Norway. In Seeds on Ice, Fowler explains how the vault came to be and offers a virtual visit to its Arctic home via photographs by Mari Tefre. Fowler will appear at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis on December 10.

Telling the Whole Story

In work and life, Dorothy Allison defies narrow categories

By Maria Browning | October 24, 2016

bastardoutofcarolina Whether she’s writing about her tough, spirited characters or her own difficult life, Dorothy Allison seems determined to defy all narrow categories, seeking instead to express the full complexity of human experience. Allison, who serves as the 2016 Acuff Chair at the Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts at Austin Peay State University, will speak on October 27 at 8 p.m. in Clement Auditorium on the APSU campus. The event is free and open to the public.

Hidden Homelessness

Richard Schweid considers the plight of homeless families in Invisible Nation

By Maria Browning | September 23, 2016

schweid_invisible-nation-jacket-image In his ninth book, Invisible Nation: Homeless Families in America, Richard Schweid surveys the plight of homeless children in five cities and considers possible solutions. Schweid will appear at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 14-16.

Man of the Streets

In Robert Walker Corey Mesler imagines his way into the life of a homeless man

By Maria Browning | September 19, 2016

robert-walker-cover1 In his novel Robert Walker, Corey Mesler gives readers a glimpse into the mind and heart of a homeless man wandering the streets of Memphis. Mesler will discuss Robert Walker at Burke’s Book Store in Memphis on September 29 at 5:30 p.m.

Garden of Life

The poems in Linda Parsons’s This Shaky Earth whisper elusive truths of the heart

By Maria Browning | June 1, 2016

June 1, 2016 The poems in Linda Parsons’s This Shaky Earth take their material from the prosaic and the deeply personal, but there’s nothing narrow about them. Rich with all the mystery and complexity of human feeling, they often depict the pleasures of home darkened by troubled memories. Parsons will discuss This Shaky Earth at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on June 5, 2016, at 2 p.m.