Chapter 16 - Part 3

A Picture of Home, Bittersweet and Ephemeral

Photographer Heidi Ross and writer Ann Patchett capture the essence of the new Nashville—and the ghost of the old city, too

By Susannah Felts | November 5, 2018

Nashville: Scenes from the New American South, the new coffee-table book from photographer Heidi Ross and writer Ann Patchett, is true to its namesake—a glorious blur of music and lights and smiles and signs and people always on the move. Patchett and Ross will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on November 13 at 5:30 p.m.

Paying Attention

Lee Smith talks with Chapter 16 about writers and writing, memories and remembering

By Susannah Felts | September 28, 2018

In this generous and thoughtful interview, Lee Smith reflects further on her writing life, the way her stories have been shaped by certain books, and the significance of place in her work, among other subjects. Smith will appear at the 2018 Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 12-14.

The Never-Ending Risk-Benefit Analysis

Kim Brooks heads to Tennessee to discuss parenthood in the age of fear

By Susannah Felts | September 27, 2018

In March of 2011, Kim Brooks made a decision that upended her life: she left her four-year-old son buckled into his car seat while she ran into Target to make one quick purchase. The result of the fallout from that decision is Small Animals: Parenthood in the Age of Fear, which Brooks will discuss at the 2018 Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 12-14.

A New Disequilibrium

Former Nashvillian David Arnold returns to Music City to launch his third YA novel

By Susannah Felts | May 17, 2018

David Arnold’s depiction of teen life is heavily seasoned with dialogue in which teens have their say—in authentic, funny voices—about the absurdities of the now. Arnold will discuss The Strange Fascinations of Noah Hypnotik at Parnassus Books in Nashville on May 22 at 6:30 p.m. He will appear in conversation with novelists Courtney J. Stevens and Jeff Zentner.

A Story in Every Plate, a Plate in Every Story

Rick Bragg is back with another family memoir—this time with recipes

By Susannah Felts | May 2, 2018

Rick Bragg’s subject in The Best Cook in the World: Tales from My Momma’s Table is the family’s foodways—its long legacy of Southern cooking, its relationship with food through hard times and flush seasons, the recipes handed down generation upon generation. Bragg will appear at Novel in Memphis on May 7 and at the Nashville Public Library on May 8.

Anything But Bland

Amber Wilson’s For the Love of the South began as a website of the same name

By Susannah Felts | March 7, 2018

Like many beautiful books these days, Amber Wilson’s For the Love of the South began as a website of the same name—”a place,” she writes, “where I shared my love for the food, characters, and culture that helped shape who I am.” She will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on March 13 and at Novel in Memphis on March 15.

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