Celebrated photographer Maude Schuyler Clay documents the un-pampered canines of the Mississippi Delta
July 9, 2014 In Delta Dogs, Maude Schuyler Clay captures the beauty, nobility, and sadness of rural Mississippi’s canine denizens. The book also features an introduction by fiction writer Brad Watson and an essay by poet Beth Ann Fennelly. Clay will discuss the collection at Burke’s Book Store in Memphis on July 17, 2014, at 5:30 p.m.
Tracy Barrett spins a new story from an old one in The Stepsister’s Tale
June 18, 2014 Without violating the spirit of the folktale, Tracy Barrett reinvents the Cinderella story with a sensibility that is distinctly modern. In The Stepsister’s Tale, female independence and solidarity matter far more than male gallantry, but the romance and hopeful essence of the original remain. Barrett will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on June 24, 2014, at 6:30 p.m.
Barbara Herman surveys the complex delights of vintage perfume in Scent & Subversion
June 2, 2014 Barbara Herman calls vintage perfume a “liquid language” that reveals something about the tastes and dreams of a bygone era, even as it offers us a portal to our own deep desires. In Scent & Subversion: Decoding a Century of Provocative Perfume, Herman describes hundreds of classic twentieth-century perfumes and considers their rich, sensual appeal. She will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on June 5, 2014, at 6:30 p.m.
Madison Smartt Bell talks to Chapter 16 about his new story collection, Zig Zag Wanderer
May 19, 2014 The publisher of Zig Zag Wanderer, Madison Smartt Bell’s third short-story collection, is the innovative Concord Free Press, which gives away all its books with the understanding that readers will “pay it forward” by making a donation to a charity or a person in need. Bell answers questions from Chapter 16 about the stories and CFP’s unique approach to publishing.
Margaret Atwood brings her apocalyptic trilogy to a close with MaddAddam
April 8, 2014 With MaddAddam, the final book in Margaret Atwood’s trilogy about a bioengineered apocalypse, the story takes a turn toward the comic, transforming a dystopian vision into a darkly funny fairy tale for grown-ups. Atwood will discuss MaddAddam at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville on April 11, 2014, at 8 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.
In Patrick O’Keeffe’s The Visitors, an Irish immigrant finds that home is inescapable
March 25, 2014 In his debut novel, The Visitors, Patrick O’Keeffe tells the story of a modern-day Irish immigrant who finds that the secrets and conflicts of his home village follow him to America, haunting his thoughts and pulling him toward a troubling encounter with a boyhood nemesis. Patrick O’Keeffe will discuss The Visitors at the University of Tennessee’s Hodges Library in Knoxville on March 31, 2014, at 7 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.
