For memoirist Frances Mayes, childhood was a powder keg
October 7, 2014 In Under Magnolia, Frances Mayes recalls her childhood in South Georgia, trying to survive in the overwrought atmosphere created by her high-strung, alcoholic parents. It is a moving account of the coming-of-age of a young woman destined to be a poet, teacher, and bestselling memoirist. Mayes will appear at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 10-12, 2014.
With his signature brand of silly and smart, Jasper Fforde continues his foray into young-adult literature
October 6, 2013 In Jasper Fforde’s The Eye of Zoltar, mayhem and hilarity vie for center stage. Prior to his appearance at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 10-12, 2014, Fforde spoke with Chapter 16 about why writing for young adults isn’t so very different from writing for their parents.
Alexis Coe talks with Chapter 16 about Alice + Freda Forever, a true tale of crime in Gilded-Age Memphis
October 3, 2014 On January 25, 1892, on a busy Memphis sidewalk, Alice Mitchell slit the throat of Freda Ward, a crime that made national headlines because Alice’s motive—jealousy in a homosexual relationship—was inconceivable to a nineteenth-century audience. Alexis Coe’s new book about the case, Alice + Freda Forever: A Murder in Memphis, is a window into how gender, class, and race shaped society of that day. Coe will appear at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis on October 9, 2014, and again at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 10-12.
The Magician’s Land marks the grand finale of Lev Grossman’s bestselling trilogy
October 2, 2014 So much of what’s appealing about Lev Grossman is on display in the 400-plus fantastical pages of The Magician’s Land: his easy way with grandly deployed plotlines, his nuanced attention to the ways men and women communicate (or fail to), and his taut pacing. Lev Grossman will discuss the final volume in his fantasy trilogy at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 10-12, 2014. All festival events are free and open to the public.
Patricia Lockwood brings her mind-bending poems to the Southern Festival of Books
October 1, 2014 Patricia Lockwood’s Motherland Fatherland Homelandsexuals is at times gut-punch funny, and it is wildly inventive throughout, but the book’s center of gravity is “Rape Joke,” the poem that went viral last year. Lockwood will appear at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 10-12, 2014. All festival events are free and open to the public.
Carl Hiaasen talks about his wacky style of Florida thriller, teen edition
September 30, 2014 In twenty-three novels, two books of nonfiction, and a Pulitzer Prize-winning column for the Miami Herald, Carl Hiaasen has captured the weird side of Florida life—and crime—like no other writer. In Skink—No Surrender, his first YA novel, Hiassen pairs a beloved character from his adult books with a teen narrator. Hiassen will appear at the Nashville Public Library on October 6, 2014, at 6:15 p.m. The event, part of the Salon@615 series, is free and open to the public.
