Chapter 16 - Part 18

A Stubborn, Gentle-Hearted Survivor

Robert Bausch talks with Chapter 16 about his novel of the old West, Far As the Eye Can See

By Maria Browning | October 31, 2014

October 31, 2014 Bobby Hale, the protagonist of Robert Bausch’s Far As the Eye Can See, is a stubborn survivor and a bit of a con man but essentially a gentle soul. Caught up in the movement westward after the Civil War, Hale struggles to find some sort of human connection in a violent, unforgiving environment. Robert Bausch will appear at Burke’s Book Store in Memphis on November 7, 2014, at 5:30 p.m.

Breathing Another Country’s Air

Dinaw Mengestu’s The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears, the inaugural selection for Memphis Reads, reveals the complexity of the immigrant experience

By Maria Browning | October 30, 2014

October 30, 2014 Sepha Stephanos, the immigrant protagonist of Dinaw Mengestu’s The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears, is not the archetypal ambitious newcomer, striving for American success. He’s a sensitive, troubled man bewildered by life in a culture not his own. The novel is the inaugural selection for Memphis’s first city-wide read. On November 4, 2014, Mengestu will visit Memphis to discuss the book at the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library and Christian Brothers University. Both events are free and open to the public.

Clever Monster

In Octopus, Richard Schweid considers the cephalopod

By Maria Browning | October 22, 2014

October 22, 2013 Richard Schweid, a Nashville native who now lives in Barcelona, has written books on eels and cockroaches, and with Octopus he continues his fascination with the less-cute creatures of the natural world. This lively book introduces readers to a creature who is strange, tasty, and surprisingly intelligent.

All Together Now

A Chapter 16 writer considers the collective spirit of the Southern Festival of Books

By Maria Browning | October 10, 2014

October 10, 2014 The Southern Festival of Books is big, varied, and one of the most inclusive cultural events around. Chapter 16’s Maria Browning considers the special pleasure of the festival’s collective spirit. The twenty-sixth annual Southern Festival of Books will take place in Nashville October 10-12, 2014, at Legislative Plaza and the Nashville Public Library. All festival events are free and open to the public.

Leaving Home

New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow recalls his difficult youth in Fire Shut Up in My Bones

By Maria Browning | September 25, 2014

September 25, 2014 In his memoir, Fire Shut Up in My Bones, New York Times op-ed columnist Charles M. Blow tells the story of a small-town Southern childhood marked by poverty and sexual abuse. Blow will speak at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 10-12, 2014. All festival events are free and open to the public.

A Vision of Redemption

In Zion, poet TJ Jarrett explores the fierce possibilities of love and forgiveness

By Maria Browning | September 19, 2014

September 19, 2014 The poems in TJ Jarrett’s stunning second collection, Zion, are shaped by the desire to summon mercy and forgiveness in the face of terrible wrong, and they celebrate, without a trace of sentimentality, the sustaining power of love. TJ Jarrett will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on September 26, 2014, at 6:30 p.m. and again at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 10-12, 2014.

Tender Headed (National Poetry Series)

By Olatunde Osinaike
Akashic Books
80 pages
17.95

“In Tender Headed, Olatunde Osinaike asks the question, what makes a man, and what makes a man like me? As he interrogates the inner and outer workings of masculinity in all its sharp and tender parts, and the way a Black man meets the world, his poems strut and duck and weave across their pages. These poems unpack the ingredients of being and make a meal of language.”

~ Camille Rankine, author of Incorrect Merciful Impulses