Chapter 16 - Part 26

Dictated by Daemons

Madison Smartt Bell’s The Color of Night provoked and enthralled the critics

By Maria Browning | December 7, 2011

December 7, 2011 With his novels about both the Haitian Revolution and the Confederate anti-hero Nathan Bedford Forrest, Madison Smartt Bell made an art of writing about violence. His latest novel, The Color of Night, takes that art to a new level with its depiction of a solitary, unrepentant killer who happens to be a woman. The book provoked controversy for its subject matter and for Bell’s unusual creative process. Today Chapter 16 offers a roundup of the discussion, including Bell’s own thoughts about his work.

Diversity Within Diversity

With a new collection of essays, editors Blas Falconer and Lorraine M. López explore the varied faces of Latino identity and literature

By Maria Browning | October 21, 2011

October 21, 2011 The word “Latino” is a catch-all term, “an imaginary space for filing diverse people in a singular slot.” In The Other Latin@: Writing Against a Singular Identity, a new essay collection edited by Blas Falconer and Lorraine M. López, twenty-one writers examine the multifaceted nature of Latino identity and the way it shapes their work. Falconer will read from his work on October 24 at 7 p.m. at the Hodges Library on the University of Tennessee campus in Knoxville.

Creative Fragments

Memphis event explores new possibilities in a rich literary tradition

By Maria Browning | October 6, 2011

October 6, 2011 With a new show called Fragments: Poets and Artists of the South and Southwest, Memphis’s Harrington Brown Gallery hosts an innovative exploration of the ancient tradition of ekphrasis—a literary description or consideration of a work of art. The show opens on October 7 at 6 p.m. and runs through November 1.

A Great and Challenging Game

Memphis author and bookseller Corey Mesler talks about art and commerce

By Maria Browning | September 14, 2011

September 14, 2011 Corey Mesler has eight books of poetry and fiction to his credit and has received praise from the likes of John Grisham and Robert Olen Butler, but he’s probably best known to his fellow Memphians as the co-owner of Burke’s Books, a venerable store founded in 1875. With two new books this year—Before the Great Troubling, a volume of poetry, and a collection of short fiction, Notes Toward the Story & Other Stories—he talks with Chapter 16 about his art and his business. Mesler will read and sign Before the Great Troubling and Notes Toward the Story & Other Stories at Burke’s Books on September 15 at 6 p.m.

A Happy Family, Supersized

Acclaimed journalist Melissa Fay Greene delivers a witty account of her exceptional family

By Maria Browning | September 9, 2011

September 9, 2011 For acclaimed journalist Melissa Fay Greene and her husband, the prospect of being home alone after their four children grew up was not a happy one. No Biking in the House Without a Helmet is Greene’s account of how her family adopted five more children—a son from Bulgaria, and three sons and a daughter from Ethiopia—and found all their lives “enlivened and enriched” in the process. Melissa Fay Greene will appear at the 2011 Southern Festival of Books, held October 14-16 in Nashville.

Anything for Art

Kevin Wilson’s debut novel tells the tale of a wildly funny dysfunctional family

By Maria Browning | September 1, 2011

September 1, 2011 In his funny, whimsical debut novel, The Family Fang, Kevin Wilson creates a familiar family drama with an outrageous twist. Kevin Wilson will appear at the 2011 Southern Festival of Books, held October 14-16 in Nashville.

Isabel and the Invisible World

By Alan Lightman, illustrated by Ramona Kaulitzki
MIT Kids Press
40 pages
$18.99

“In simple, engaging language, complemented by luminous artwork from best-selling illustrator Ramona Kaulitzki, author and physicist Alan Lightman unveils the hidden world of light waves—the ones you can see and the ones you can’t.”

~ the publisher