Ariel Lawhon’s debut novel reveals a plummy, pernicious mystery
July 23, 2014 The Wife, The Maid, and The Mistress, the debut novel by Nashville resident Ariel Lawhon, revisits the real-life mystery surrounding the 1930 disappearance of New York Supreme Court judge Joseph Crater. Ariel Lawhon will appear at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville October 10-12, 2014. All festival events are free and open to the public.
Robert Gordon talks with Chapter 16 about Respect Yourself, his new history of Stax Records
July 22, 2014 Robert Gordon’s Respect Yourself: Stax Records and the Soul Explosion is a propulsive page-turner about a white fiddler and bank employee named Jim Stewart and his sister, Estelle Axton, who built the Stax Record label in the Soulsville neighborhood of Memphis. Robert Gordon will appear at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville October 10-12, 2014. All festival events are free and open to the public.
Edan Lepucki’s California is a uniquely domestic turn on the post-apocalyptic novel
July 17, 2014 Thanks to an unexpected bump from comedian Stephen Colbert, Edan Lepucki’s debut novel has been lifted up from the crowded field of post-apocalyptic novels to wide notice and acclaim. A unique take on the form, California focuses less on the sensational aspects of Armageddon than on the complications of domesticity in a crumbling world. Lepucki will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on July 29, 2014, at 6:30 p.m.
A Chapter 16 contributor returns to the Sewanee Writers’ Conference
July 18, 2014 Two summers ago, when I learned I’d been accepted to the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, I was weeks into a debilitating illness that had left me unable to walk and unsure how much mobility I’d ever regain. I was in constant pain, barely able to stand up on crutches. My friends and family tried to look supportive when I insisted that I would be well enough to go to Sewanee. Then they’d find a tactful way to ask me whether I’d ever seen the University of the South—all those steep hills and narrow stone steps.
C.J. Box, author of the Joe Pickett novels, explores evil and vengeance in a new story collection
July 16, 2014 C.J. Box’s first collection of short fiction, Shots Fired, offers a fair introduction to the author’s preoccupation with irredeemable evil. While only four of the stories feature Joe Pickett, the intrepid Wyoming game warden who appears in fourteen of Box’s novels, the rest retain Box’s fascination with sudden violence, exotic animals, and rough justice. C.J. Box will appear at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis on July 28, 2014, at 6 p.m.
Poet Jesse Graves gracefully explores difficult territory in Basin Ghosts
July 15, 2014 There is abundant love and tender memory in poet Jesse Graves’s new collection, Basin Ghosts, but Graves also goes gracefully into some of the most difficult territory of life. Graves will discuss Basin Ghosts at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on July 26, 2014, at 2 p.m., and at the Southern Festival of Books, which will be held at Legislative Plaza in Nashville October 10-12, 2014.
