A Chapter 16 writer considers the complications of kindness
March 25, 2015 One day in early January the weather reports were full of breathless predictions about a brutal cold snap on its way. When I drove by Leon’s house that afternoon I saw the dog out there, and knowing it would soon shiver in a sub-zero wind chill, I suddenly couldn’t take it anymore. It was unbearable to continue doing nothing.
The Celebration of Southern Literature brings many of the South’s finest writers to Chattanooga
March 23, 2015 The Fellowship of Southern Writers—a group that includes luminaries like Bobbie Ann Mason, Ron Rash, and Natasha Trethewey—will gather in Chattanooga April 16-18, 2015, for the Celebration of Southern Literature, an event that is part writers’ conference, part book festival, and part homecoming for a diverse group of authors who share a connection to the region. Tickets to the biennial event are available now.
LaShonda Katrice Barnett’s Jam on the Vine tells the story of a young black journalist in the Jim Crow era
March 17, 2014 Ivoe Williams, the heroine of LaShonda Katrice Barnett’s debut novel, Jam on the Vine, is an African-American girl born in turn-of-the-twentieth-century Texas to poor, hardworking parents. The story of Ivoe’s trials and triumphs as an aspiring journalist provides a vivid depiction of the black experience during one of the ugliest periods in American history. Barnett will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on March 23, 2015, at 6:30 p.m.
Poet Natasha Trethewey talks about history, her work, her biracial identity, and the violence in her past
March 16, 2015 Natasha Trethewey won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 2007 for her third book, Native Guard, which explores the complex interplay of personal and collective history. Natasha Trethewey will give a reading at Vanderbilt University in Nashville on March 19, 2015, at 7 p.m. The event, which will be held in Wilson Hall Room 126, is free and open to the public.
Poet Sarah Gorham considers the imperfect world in Study in Perfect
February 23, 2015 The essays in Sarah Gorham’s Study in Perfect wander through a disparate collection of subjects, from poisonous mushrooms to the nature of selfishness, offering a reminder that amid the chaos of living, we all desire a life more nearly perfect. Gorham will appear at Vanderbilt University in Nashville on February 26, 2015, at 7 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.
A Chapter 16 writer tells a tale of two Christmases
December 19, 2014 When I was a child, Christmas at Granny Browning’s house was about tradition, not pleasure. Christmas at home was an orgy of expensive presents and junk food. Both of them were wonderful and awful—and both were gifts to last a lifetime.
