Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Book Excerpt: night thoughts

April 11, 2014 Sarah Arvio’s books include Visits from the Seventh; Sono: cantos; and night thoughts: 70 dream poems & notes from an analysis (all from Alfred A. Knopf). Arvio has won the Rome Prize of the American Academy of Arts & Letters, as well as Guggenheim, Bogliasco, and NEA fellowships. For many years a translator for the United Nations in New York and Switzerland, she now lives in Maryland near the Chesapeake Bay. Arvio will read from night thoughts at Burke’s Book Store in Memphis on April 17, 2014, at 5:30 p.m.

Read more

Tennessee’s First Hero

Gordon Belt and Traci Nichols-Belt examine how history has treated Tennessee founding father John Sevier

April 10, 2014 John Sevier was widely recognized as a hero during his own time. Later writers and historical societies frequently revisited his legend, producing literature and monuments that reflected their own historical context. In John Sevier, Tennessee’s First Hero, Gordon T. Belt and Traci Nichols-Belt dig into those books, pamphlets, speeches, sermons, editorials, and letters to see how Sevier’s reputation has evolved over the years. The Belts will appear at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on April 13, 2014, at 2 p.m.

Read more

Highway to Hell

Sallie Bissell is back with another Mary Crow thriller in which death and disappearance are frequent travelers on an infamous North Carolina roadway

April 9, 2014 Two gay men near Asheville, North Carolina, are brutally murdered, possibly in connection with a backwater preacher’s shocking anti-gay bombast on YouTube, and North Carolina Governor Ann Chandler is worried. Clearly, this is a case for special prosecutor Mary Crow. Sallie Bissell will discuss Deadliest of Sins, her sixth Mary Crow mystery, on April 12, 2014, at Mysteries & More in Nashville at 2 p.m.

Read more

A Darkly Funny Dystopia

Margaret Atwood brings her apocalyptic trilogy to a close with MaddAddam

April 8, 2014 With MaddAddam, the final book in Margaret Atwood’s trilogy about a bioengineered apocalypse, the story takes a turn toward the comic, transforming a dystopian vision into a darkly funny fairy tale for grown-ups. Atwood will discuss MaddAddam at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville on April 11, 2014, at 8 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

Read more

A Shared World

Eavan Boland talks with Chapter 16 about her new work, the definition of memoir, and poems as unfinished business

April 7, 2014 “Your poems may be in the past. Your faults are always in the future.” In this interview, Eavan Boland discusses her latest books, including A Journey with Two Maps, which blurs the boundaries of genre by combining memoir with literary criticism. On April 10, 2014, at 7 p.m., Boland will appear in Buttrick Hall on the Vanderbilt University campus in Nashville as part of the Vanderbilt Visiting Writers Series. The event is free and open to the public.

Read more

Making Over Miss Julia

Ann B. Ross contemplates the joys and challenges of a literary franchise that’s going strong after fifteen installments

April 4, 2014 Ann B. Ross, already beloved for her Miss Julia cozy mysteries, will surely keep fans happy with the fifteenth installment of the series, Miss Julia’s Marvelous Makeover. Ross will appear at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on April 9, 2014, at 6 p.m.

Read more
TAKE THE SHORT READER SURVEY! CHAPTER 16 SURVEYOR SURVEYING