Chapter 16 - Part 20

Finding Identity Amid Anonymity

The characters in John Brandon’s Further Joy live in Florida’s nowhere towns

By Sean Kinch | June 4, 2014

June 4, 2014 The stories in John Brandon’s new collection, Further Joy, pack a novel’s worth of engaging conflict and intriguing personalities into small packages. Stuck in small Florida towns that have no tourist attractions or natural beauty, Brandon’s characters make a game of their lives just to withstand them. John Brandon will read from Further Joy at Crosstown Arts in Memphis on June 9, 2014, at 6 p.m.

Circular Perfection, Infinite Hope

Robin Layton’s photographs capture the origins of basketball dreams

By Sean Kinch | April 2, 2014

April 2, 2014 Robin Layton’s new book of photography, hoop: the american dream, captures the romance of basketball through images of lone baskets around the country. Ranging from urban playgrounds to suburban parks to backboards nailed to the sides of Iowa barns, Layton’s subjects are as various as the people who play the game. Robin Layton will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on April 4 at 6:30 p.m.

Profound Activities of the Mind

Prior to her Memphis appearance, Shakespearean scholar Marjorie Garber talks with Chapter 16 about the pleasures of reading and the value of the humanities

By Sean Kinch | March 20, 2014

March 20, 2014 Marjorie Garber believes that the way we read Shakespeare’s plays tells us as much about ourselves as it does about the Bard himself. In an interview with Chapter 16, Garber discusses her approach to Shakespeare, her love of literature, and her commitment to intellectual speculation. She will speak at Rhodes College in Memphis on March 27, 2014, at 7 p.m. Her talk, “Occupy Shakespeare: Shakespeare and/in the Humanities,” is free and open to the public.

Picking up the Pieces

In Bill Cotter’s Parallel Apartments, a cast of outcasts and misfits attempt to re-assemble their lives

By Sean Kinch | March 13, 2014

March 13, 2014 Bill Cotter’s new novel, Parallel Apartments, set mainly in Austin, centers on three generations of women whose lives have been upended by unplanned pregnancies. This densely peopled novel is replete with outrageous events intended to provoke and titillate, but at its heart it explores the nature of desire and the consequences of dubious decisions. Bill Cotter will read from Parallel Apartments at Crosstown Arts in Memphis on March 18, 2014, at 6 p.m.

Whose God Will Prevail?

In Okey Ndibe’s Foreign Gods, Inc., African deities become pawns in the global market

By Sean Kinch | January 15, 2014

January 15, 2014 In Okey Ndibe’s new novel, Foreign Gods, Inc., a Nigerian-American on the brink of bankruptcy decides to steal the war god from his African village and sell it to a Manhattan art dealer. This scheme leads him into the middle of religious and political conflicts that force him to decide where his deepest loyalties lie. Ndibe will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on January 19, 2014, at 2 p.m.

We Are What We Bury

In his new novel, Want Not, Jonathan Miles digs through the garbage

By Sean Kinch | November 14, 2013

November 14, 2013 Jonathan Miles’s second novel, Want Not, follows a middle-aged linguistics professor, a pair of Dumpster-diving “freegans,” and a suburban housewife, all living in greater New York City, as they come to terms with the refuse of their lives. It’s a droll and affecting tale that disguises its philosophical message beneath a comic veneer. Miles will read from Want Not at Parnassus Books in Nashville on November 16, 2013, at 4 p.m.