Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Maria Browning

Delicate Prose, Fearless Storytelling

Christine Schutt talks with Chapter 16 about her new novel, Prosperous Friends

January 21, 2014 In Prosperous Friends, her third novel, Christine Schutt surveys the marriage of Ned and Isabel, a deeply unhappy pair. Through a succession of exquisitely wrought scenes, she conveys the yearning sadness of a love that never quite happens. Schutt—a finalist for both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize—recently answered questions from Chapter 16 via email. She will give a free public reading at Vanderbilt University in Nashville on January 23, 2014, at 7 p.m. in Buttrick Hall Room 102.

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Serious Fun

In Diddy Wah Diddy, Corey Mesler creates a fantasy folk history of Beale Street

December 11, 2013 In Diddy Wah Diddy, Memphis author Corey Mesler offers up a collage of short pieces that create a fanciful fictional history of Beale Street, the birthplace of the blues. Mesler calls the book a “collage novel,” a hint about the rich mix of fantasy, wordplay, and good-hearted bawdiness to be found therein.

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A Wise, Intuitive Friend

Nikki Giovanni’s vibrant spirit is evident in her new collection, Chasing Utopia

November 13, 2013 Nikki Giovanni is a poet who speaks directly about the business of living, whether she’s celebrating simple pleasures, observing the difficulties of love, or denouncing injustice. On November 20, 2013, at 6:15 p.m., she will discuss her new collection, Chasing Utopia: A Hybrid, at the Nashville Public Library. The event, part of the Salon@615 series, is free and open to the public.

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A Genuine Heart

In her new novel, Amy Tan depicts the life of a Shanghai courtesan

November 12, 2013 In The Valley of Amazement, bestselling author Amy Tan revisits her hallmark themes of female identity and struggle through the story of a young half-American courtesan in early twentieth-century Shanghai. Tan will be in Nashville to discuss and read from the novel on November 18, 2013, at 6:15 p.m. at the Hume-Fogg Academic High School Auditorium. The event, which is free and open to the public, is part of the Salon@615 series.

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Life Among the Fallen

Allan Gurganus takes a darkly comic look at small-town life in Local Souls

October 3, 2013 In Local Souls, Allan Gurganus offers up a trio of comic novellas set in fictional Falls, North Carolina, a twenty-first-century village where the insular coziness of small-town life is being diminished by newcomers, digital communication, and natural calamity. Gurganus will appear at the twenty-fifth annual Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 11-13, 2013.

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Smart, Sad, Funny

Poet Mary Jo Salter’s new collection, Nothing by Design, is heavy and light by turns

September 11, 2013 The poems in Mary Jo Salter’s Nothing by Design display her characteristic wit, erudition, and formal grace, along with real depth of feeling. They are entertaining in the truest sense, speaking to the reader’s mind and heart with equal urgency, and they have a bit of silliness thrown in for good measure. Salter will appear at the twenty-fifth annual Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 11-13, 2013. All festival events are free and open to the public.

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