The big YA book for spring this year looks to be Ruta Sepetys’s second historical novel for teens
January 22, 2013 In 2010, during the weeks leading up to the publication of Between Shades of Gray, Ruta Sepetys racked up a perfect set of starred reviews, one from each of the four pre-publication review sites used by the bookselling industry to make ordering decisions.
Read moreCharles Wright wins yet another premier poetry prize
January 22, 2013 Yale University today announced that Charles Wright, a native of Pickwick Dam, Tennessee, has won the 2013 Bollingen Prize for his poetry collection, Bye-and-Bye: Selected Late Poems. The prize, one of the most prestigious given poets, is awarded every other year and carries a stipend of $150,000.
Read moreLorrie Moore is set to join the faculty of the Vanderbilt creative-writing program
January 18, 2013 Vanderbilt University’s graduate program in creative writing—already the single most selective M.F.A. program in the country—just drafted a powerhouse: Lorrie Moore, a widely acknowledged master of short fiction and winner of the Rea Award for the Short Story, the PEN/Malamud Award for excellence in the art of the short story, and The Irish Times International Fiction Prize, has accepted a new endowed chair and will join the Vanderbilt faculty in the fall.
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A new book profiles six families who have partnered with the Land Trust for Tennessee to preserve their land for future generations
November 30, 2012 In 1999, the Land Trust for Tennessee was chartered to “preserve the unique character of Tennessee’s natural and historic landscapes and sites for future generations.” So far, more than 200 landowners have partnered with the Land Trust to create conservation easements that now protect 75,000 acres in Tennessee—family farms, historic buildings, rural lands, even an arboretum. Home to Us, a lavish new coffee-table book by Varina Willse, with photos by Nancy Rhoda, features the stories of six very different families who have preserved their lands through conservation easements. Willse recently answered questions about the project from Chapter 16.
Read moreWith a three-book publishing deal, an award for philanthropy, twenty baseball wins under his belt, and a feature appearance in a documentary, R.A. Dickey is having a monumental season
October 10, 2012 Knuckleballer R.A. Dickey is having what sportswriters call a “streak,” scientists call “critical mass,” and Dickey himself calls a “kairotic moment.” To put it more prosaically, this is R.A. Dickey’s year. “Timing is so important in life, I believe,” Dickey recently wrote to Chapter 16 in an email. “I have really felt that this last year has been the culmination of so many things coming together.”
Read moreAdam Ross’s “In the Basement” is shortlisted for the BBC International Short Story Award
September 17, 2012 To celebrate the 2012 Olympics. the BBC National Short Story Award has this year become the BBC International Short Story Award, and Nashville’s Adam Ross is the only U.S. author to make the shortlist. The finalists were announced in a live BBC broadcast on Friday. Ross’s story, “In the Basement,” appears in Ladies and Gentlemen, a short-story collection just released in paperback.
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