Big Man on Campus
In those days I wanted to become a novelist, but Mr. Dickey, author of a bestselling novel and wildly successful screenplay, taught only poetry, which he called in one of his book titles “the central motion.” So poetry it was.
Building Momentum
FROM THE CHAPTER 16 ARCHIVE: A former crime reporter for the Los Angeles Times, Michael Connelly discusses with Chapter 16 the slow death of local newspapers; his latest Harry Bosch installment, Nine Dragons; electronic books; and his popular legal-series protagonist, Mickey Haller.
A Southern Ramble
John Muir’s A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf chronicles the famed conservationist’s trek through the South in 1867. In A Road Running Southward, Dan Chapman, a Georgia-based environmental reporter, follows Muir’s path on foot and by Subaru, observing nature at risk from mountain forests to coastal estuaries.
The Man as a Writer
In James Dickey: A Literary Life, Gordon Van Ness, a long-time scholar of the Vanderbilt-educated poet and novelist, has written a comprehensive biography of a complex man and his place in American letters.
Parting Shot
Spenser, a hard-punching, Shakespeare-quoting private eye created over 50 years ago by Robert B. Parker, is hired to safeguard a congresswoman chased by homegrown terrorists in Robert B. Parker’s Bye Bye Baby, the tenth installment in the iconic series from the pen of Ace Atkins.
Forgotten Flora
In Saving the Wild South, Georgann Eubanks and photographer Donna Campbell visit seven Southern states to seek out rare native plants. Eubanks creates compelling narratives of the natural history of 10 endangered species, along with the personal histories of dedicated individuals fighting to save these plants from extinction.
