In her new YA novel, I Was Here, Gayle Forman explores the questions surrounding a teen suicide
January 27, 2015 In I Was Here, bestselling author Gayle Forman has created a powerful story about an eighteen-year-old girl’s search for the reasons behind her best friend’s suicide. Forman will be joined by fellow young-adult authors Ruta Sepetys, David Arnold, and Courtney Stevens at Parnassus Books in Nashville on January 30, 2015, at 6:30 p.m.
Beth Bachmann’s latest poetry collection explores the ramifications of war
January 26, 2015 In her new collection, Do Not Rise, Nashville poet Beth Bachmann writes about war and its aftermath with unflinching insight. Bachmann will read from her work on January 29, 2015, at 7 p. m. on the Vanderbilt University campus in Nashville. The event, which also includes a reading by Vanderbilt novelist Tony Earley, is free and open to the public.
A unique writers’ group in Memphis has produced a book of first-hand accounts of homelessness
January 23, 2015 The Door of Hope Writing Group in Memphis is a weekly meet-up for homeless writers. The nonprofit’s new project, Writing Our Way Home: A Group Journey Out of Homelessness, chronicles both the hard times and big breakthroughs of writers living on the street.
Edward B. McCaul Jr. examines the Civil War struggle for control of the Mississippi River
January 22, 2015 To Retain Command of the Mississippi is Edward McCaul’s thorough look at everything—strategy, politics, personnel, boats, technology, and battles—connected with the campaign to establish control of the Mississippi during the first two years of the Civil War. McCaul argues that the river battle at Memphis could have gone the other way, with consequences that might have led to Confederate independence.
Rivendell Writers’ Colony in Sewanee offers writers—and readers—a beautiful respite from the day-to-day world
January 21, 2015 Writers’ retreats can be powerful incubators for novels, stories, and poems, allowing writers to immerse themselves in their work, free from the distractions of daily life. Rivendell Writers’ Colony, in Sewanee, is the first of its kind in Tennessee, and word of its particular magic is beginning to travel.
Novelist Jonathan Miles talks with Chapter 16 about comedy and philosophy in fiction
January 20, 2015 Jonathan Miles has a gift for transforming life’s base materials into literary gold. His novels, Dear American Airlines (2008) and Want Not (2013), address dark, potentially dispiriting themes with a deft, comedic touch. Miles will give a free public reading at the University of Tennessee’s John C. Hodges Library in Knoxville on January 26, 2015, at 7 p.m.
