Chapter 16 - Part 435

Inventing Ways to be Honest

Karen Russell talks with Chapter 16 about why she broke up with Amazon, how it feels to be on the shortlist for a Pulitzer Prize that was not awarded, and the distinction between fantasy and fiction

By Stephen Usery | April 15, 2013

April 15, 2013Stephen Usery first spoke with Karen Russell in 2011 after the release of her debut novel, Swamplandia!. In 2012, the book was named as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in fiction. That year no prize was given, a decision which created quite a stir in the literary world. Today Usery talks with Russell about the controversy, as well as about her new story collection,Vampires in the Lemon Grove. To hear a podcast of the interview, click here.

Descending the Mountaintop

Katori Hall’s play, staged this season in theaters across the country, offers a surprising perspective on Martin Luther King Jr.

By Amaryllis Lyle | April 13, 2013

April 12, 2013 Memphis native and playwright Katori Hall is causing an international stir with her play, The Mountaintop, which chronicles the last night of Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and the events that took place in his hotel room after his famous “Mountaintop” speech. The original production premiered in 2010 in London, where Hall earned the coveted Olivier Award before returning home to open the play on Broadway in 2011. Only a year after its close on Broadway, The Mountaintop has become one of the most widely produced plays in the nation.

Wild Whodunit

The second Sidney Marsh novel by Marie Moore is set on safari in Africa

By Liz Garrigan | April 12, 2013

April 12, 2013 When Sidney Marsh gets a plum assignment at the travel agency where she works—a long “familiarization” trip to Africa—she thinks she’s in for nothing but spa luxury, open bars, and quality time with her colleague and best friend. Then a leopard dines on a fellow traveler. Moore, a Memphis resident, will discuss Game Drive at 6 p.m. on April 15 at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis.

“Cardinal”

By Jeff Daniel Marion | April 11, 2013

April 11, 2013 Jeff Daniel Marion, a native of Rogersville, taught English and creative writing at Carson-Newman University for over thirty-five years. There he was poet-in-residence, director of the Appalachian Center, and editor of Mossy Creek Reader. He has published nine poetry collections, four chapbooks, and a children’s book, Hello, Crow. Poems have appeared in a variety of journals and anthologies, including The Southern Review, Shenandoah, Southern Poetry Review and Appalachian Heritage, among others. His honors include the 2002 Outstanding Contribution to Appalachian Literature Award, the 2005 Educational Service to Appalachia Award, and the 2011 James Still Award for Writing about the Appalachian South. In 2007 he was inducted into the East Tennessee Writers Hall of Fame. Marion lives in Knoxville with his wife, poet and editor poet Linda Parsons Marion. On April 11 and 12, Carson-Newman University will host the Jeff Daniel Marion Festival. Read more about it—and the many reasons for honoring Marion—in an essay by Jesse Graves, here.

Contemporary Cinderella

By Stephen Usery | April 10, 2013

April 10, 2013 Today, author Jill McCorkle talks about the title story from her 2009 collection, Going Away Shoes, which precedes the publication of her new novel, Life After Life—her first in seventeen years.

No Holding Back

Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild practices radical empathy in every form

By Beth Waltemath | April 9, 2013

April 9, 2013 Cheryl Strayed’s ability to tell her story while inviting others to ask questions of their own lives has attracted the attention of Oprah Winfrey, who made Wild the first pick in Oprah’s Book Club 2.0, and Reese Witherspoon, who will produce and star in the film version of the book. With Wild and Tiny Beautiful Things appearing within months of each other last year—and with both shooting straight to The New York Times bestseller list—Strayed’s success seems nothing less than meteoric. She will appear at the Nashville Public Library on April 18 at 6:15 p.m. as part of the Salon@615 series. The event is free and open to the public.

The Rise and Fall of Treason in English History

By Allen Boyer and Mark Nicholls
Routledge
340 pages
$180

The book “explores the reasons why treason coalesced around specific offences agreed by both the monarch and the wider political nation, why it became an essential instrument of enforcement in high politics, and why, over the past three hundred years, it has gradually fallen into disuse while remaining on the statute book.”

~the publisher