Chapter 16 - Part 18

Spirit of Resurrection

In his memoir, The Wind in the Reeds, Wendell Pierce reflects on his lifelong devotion to art, family, and New Orleans

By Emily Choate | September 3, 2015

September 3, 2015 In his new memoir, The Wind in the Reeds: a Storm, a Play, and the City that Would Not Be Broken, New Orleans native Wendell Pierce retraces his path through the worlds of art, family, and social change. Known for his nuanced performances on The Wire and Treme, Pierce brings an actor’s empathy to this complex but ultimately hopeful account of New Orleans after Katrina. Pierce will appear at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 9-11, 2015.

A Land of Perpetual Inventions

Stories of the Mountain South defy stereotype in Appalachia Now, a new anthology

By Emily Choate | August 11, 2015

August 11, 2015 Perhaps the most striking feature of Appalachia Now: Short Stories of Contemporary Appalachia, a new anthology edited by Larry Smith and Knoxville writer Charles Dodd White, is the sheer variety of characters found in it. The people in these stories fight against preconceived types and offer a rich, bold picture of an Appalachia that defies categorization.

Backwoods Refrain

Feuding turns mystical and musical in Long Black Curl, the third volume in Alex Bledsoe’s Tufa series

By Emily Choate | July 9, 2015

July 9, 2015 In Long Black Curl, the latest installment in Alex Bledsoe’s Tufa series, Appalachian blood feuds recur through the generations like repetitions of an Irish reel. When Bo-Kate Wisby, an exiled daughter of Cloud County, returns home, she initiates a brutal power struggle that will test her entire community. Alex Bledsoe will discuss Long Black Curl at Parnassus Books in Nashville on July 18, 2015, at 2 p.m.

Observations from the Field

Euphoria author Lily King discusses the risks involved in translating real-life anthropologists into fictional characters

By Emily Choate | June 15, 2015

June 15, 2015 In her acclaimed novel, Euphoria, Lily King draws from the life of Margaret Mead to create a story of three fictional anthropologists propelled into a passionate and dangerous love triangle. Lily King will discuss Euphoria at Parnassus Books in Nashville on June 17, at 6:30 p.m.

Into History

In Fresh Water from Old Wells, Cindy Henry McMahon confronts her family’s tumultuous path toward social justice

By Emily Choate | May 21, 2015

May 21, 2015 In Fresh Water From Old Wells, Cindy Henry McMahon reveals a tumultuous family history that encompasses both civil-rights activism and backwoods hippie enclaves as she seeks to restore her own fractured memories. McMahon will discuss Fresh Water from Old Wells at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on May 31, 2015, at 2 p.m.

No Knack for Volition

In Hausfrau, Jill Alexander Essbaum invokes Anna Karenina and Emma Bovary to create her heroine’s erotic misadventures

By Emily Choate | April 27, 2015

April 27, 2015 When Anna—the ex-pat heroine of Jill Alexander Essbaum’s debut novel, Hausfrau—falls into an extramarital tangle with a fellow foreigner, the affair seems contrary to her entire nature as a person and threatens the passive surface of her life. Jill Alexander Essbaum will discuss Hausfrau at The Skillery in Nashville on May 1, 2015, at 7 p.m. The event, sponsored by The Porch Writers’ Collective and Parnassus Books, is free and open to the public.