Chapter 16 - Part 411

Getting Closer

With Jason Bateman joining Nicole Kidman on the project, Kevin Wilson’s bestselling novel, The Family Fang, is surely headed for the big screen

By Margaret Renkl | November 8, 2013

November 8, 2013 In 2011, when actress Nicole Kidman, who lives in Nashville, optioned Kevin Wilson’s debut novel, The Family Fang, for a feature film, the Sewanee author was dumbfounded. “It’s crazy,” he told Chapter 16’s Tina LoTufo at the time. “That’s the furthest thing from your mind when you’re writing a book. [But] maybe in the back of my head I was thinking if I could write a good-enough novel I would get to meet Nicole Kidman. And it would all be worth it.”

The Floating Past

Novelist, short-story writer, and translator Adria Bernardi has now published a collection of personal essays, too

By Sarah Norris | November 7, 2013

November 7, 2013 Dead Meander, a collection of personal essays by Nashville author and translator Adria Bernardi, captures traumatic experiences frozen in time. Bernardi acts as the fact-checker of her own life and emotions, as researcher and reporter charged with accounting for each experiment’s contributing factors, however minor their effect.

In the Shadows

Russell Banks displays his trademark compassion for the tragic, woe-begotten, and maligned

By Ed Tarkington | November 5, 2013

November 5, 2013 Best known for starkly realistic novels depicting the hardscrabble lives of poor Americans, Russell Banks is also a prolific author of short stories that encompass similar themes of loss, regret, and peril among the misbegotten. His new collection, A Permanent Member of the Family, raises lingering questions about the nature of human connection in our fractured, fragmented time. Banks will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on November 14, 2013, at 6:30 p.m. as part of the “Wine with the Author” series.

In Praise of Strong Women

Robert K. Massie, winner of the 2013 Nashville Public Library Literary Award, talks about the inspiration for his blockbuster biography of Catherine the Great

By Fernanda Moore | November 4, 2013

November 4, 2013 Two years after the publication of Catherine the Great, Robert K. Massie still finds his subject’s political example instructive, and he often notes parallels between Catherine’s public reputation and the treatment of today’s female leaders. Prior to his Nashville visit to accept the 2013 Nashville Public Library Literary Award, Massie spoke with Chapter 16 about his career and inspiration. He will give a lecture on November 9, 2013, at 10 a.m. at the University School of Nashville. Massie will also appear—with novelist Suzanne Kingsbury—at the Nashville Public Library on November 10 at 2 p.m. as part of the Nashville Writers Circle series. Both events are free and open to the public.

A Collision of the Beautiful and the Brutal

In a new anthology, John Branscum and Wayne Thomas have collected the literary treasures of Appalachia

By Ralph Bowden | October 31, 2013

October 31, 2013 For Red Holler: Contemporary Appalachian Literature, John Branscum and Wayne Thomas have compiled a group of stories, essays, poems, and graphic narratives from the work of twenty-three Appalachian authors. As the book’s subtitle suggests, the selections are truly contemporary, and many stretch the boundaries of traditional literary forms. They also stretch the old Appalachian stereotypes of primitive violence, poverty, and ignorance.

The Novel of Her Life

Ann Patchett talks about her new essay collection—and the beginnings of her next novel

By Stephen Usery | October 30, 2013

October 30, 2013 Ann Patchett energetically resists all efforts to identify autobiographical elements in her fiction, but she has never been averse to personal writing in general: in fact, as she explains in her new book, This is the Story of a Happy Marriage, she got her start as a writer by publishing essays and features for national magazines. Prior to her reading on November 4, 2013, at Vanderbilt University in Nashville , Patchett spoke with Chapter 16 about how opening a bookstore gave her the courage to publish this book. The event, part of the Salon@615 series, is free and open to the public.

Tias and Primas: On Knowing and Loving the Women Who Raise Us

By Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez, illustrated by Josie Del Castillo
Seal Press
304 pages
$30

“Within these pages, I found my abuela, my tías and my primas — laughing, crying, and nodding alongside me. This book is a gift of understanding, and loving one’s family, even when our families are complicated and painful. It’s a beautiful reminder of the power of storytelling and the profound connection of kinship.”

~ Paola Mendoza, author, organizer and filmmaker