The big YA book for spring this year looks to be Ruta Sepetys’s second historical novel for teens
January 22, 2013 In 2010, during the weeks leading up to the publication of Between Shades of Gray, Ruta Sepetys racked up a perfect set of starred reviews, one from each of the four pre-publication review sites used by the bookselling industry to make ordering decisions.
Read moreCharles Wright wins yet another premier poetry prize
January 22, 2013 Yale University today announced that Charles Wright, a native of Pickwick Dam, Tennessee, has won the 2013 Bollingen Prize for his poetry collection, Bye-and-Bye: Selected Late Poems. The prize, one of the most prestigious given poets, is awarded every other year and carries a stipend of $150,000.
Read moreLorrie Moore is set to join the faculty of the Vanderbilt creative-writing program
January 18, 2013 Vanderbilt University’s graduate program in creative writing—already the single most selective M.F.A. program in the country—just drafted a powerhouse: Lorrie Moore, a widely acknowledged master of short fiction and winner of the Rea Award for the Short Story, the PEN/Malamud Award for excellence in the art of the short story, and The Irish Times International Fiction Prize, has accepted a new endowed chair and will join the Vanderbilt faculty in the fall.
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Ken Foster’s new book aims to change hearts and minds about the much maligned bully breeds
January 17, 2012 Ken Foster—photographer, writer, reader, and dog lover—is on a mission to reverse the bad rap on pit bulls. I’m a Good Dog: Pit Bulls, America’s Most Beautiful (and Misunderstood) Pet is his homage to the dog made famous by both Petey of The Little Rascals and the tortured animals rescued from Michael Vick’s dog-fighting ring. Foster will discuss the book at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis on January 24 at 6 p.m., and at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on January 26 at 2 p.m.
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In This Fragile Life, Vanderbilt professor Charlotte Pierce-Baker recounts her family’s long struggle with her son’s mental illness
January 16, 2013 Vanderbilt professor Charlotte Pierce-Baker didn’t understand what was happening to her bright, creative son when he first began to behave erratically. As rages, delusions, and substance abuse made his illness obvious, Pierce-Baker and her husband struggled to help him. In This Fragile Life: A Mother’s Story of a Bipolar Son, Pierce-Baker recounts the family’s long ordeal and her journey to understanding that “bipolar is forever.” Charlotte Pierce-Baker will read from the book at Vanderbilt University on January 17 at 7 p.m. in Wilson Hall, Room 126. The event is free and open to the public.
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For T Cooper, becoming a man was “the most natural thing in the world”
January 15, 2013 “I’m not quite one of those ‘born in the wrong body’ types you see on Oprah or The Learning Channel,” T Cooper writes. “I actually think I was born in the right body. It’s just a little different, and it doesn’t fit squarely into the gender binary.” Cooper will read from and discuss his new memoir, Real Man Adventures, at Parnassus Books in Nashville on January 17 at 6:30 p.m. On March 11, Cooper will also read at the University of Tennessee’s Hodges Library. Both events are free and open to the public.
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