Chapter 16 - Part 435

Love and Other Art Forms

Veronica Kavass talks with Chapter 16 about the provocative relationship between love and art

By Melinda Baker | November 1, 2012

November 1, 2012 From Wassily Kandinsky and Gabriele Münter to Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, the twenty-nine stories in Artists in Love range from affirmations of enduring love and artistic collaboration to Shakespearean-esque tragedy. But as author Veronica Kavass demonstrates, inspired works of art were conceived no matter the arc of the love story, and many are beautifully displayed throughout her new book alongside intriguing photographs of the artist-couples. Kavass will discuss Artists in Love on November 11 at 2 p.m. at Parnassus Books in Nashville.

Maraniss Heading to Vanderbilt

David Maraniss will teach at Vanderbilt University during the spring 2013 semester

By Emily Choate | October 30, 2012

October 30, 2012

Pulitzer Prize winner David Maraniss has been named Writer in Residence at the Martha Rivers Ingram Commons and the College of Arts and Science at Vanderbilt University. Maraniss will co-teach two courses, Presidential Biographies and Reading and Writing about Sports in American Life. In a Vanderbilt press release, Maraniss says, “I’ll be focusing on subjects that obsess me—the art of biography, presidential politics and the sociology of sports.”

In Thrall to What’s Between the Margins

Short-story master Lee K. Abbott talks with Chapter 16 about an entire career spent reading, writing, and teaching

By Pablo Tanguay | October 30, 2012

October 30, 2012 Between the 1980 publication of his first story collection, The Heart Never Fits Its Wanting, and the 2006 publication of his most recent, All Things, All at Once, Lee K. Abbott wrote some of the best short stories of his generation—hell, some of the best short stories of anybody’s generation. Set in the American Southwest and featuring a cast of male narrators who are both loquacious and vital, Abbott’s full-blooded tales earned the highest praise even as their style ran counter to the era’s minimalist chic. By the end of the century, Abbott—who recently retired from the M.F.A. program at Ohio State University, where he was a professor—was widely acknowledged as a master of the short story form. Lee K. Abbot will appear at two events this week at the University of Memphis. As part of the River City Writers’ Series, Abbott will read from his work October 30 at 8 p.m. in the University Center, Room 300 (River Room). A book signing will follow. He will hold an interview with students October 31 at 10:30 a.m. in Patterson Hall, Room 456. Both events are free and open to the public.

When All Hell Broke Loose

In the second of a two-part interview, veteran journalists John Egerton and John Seigenthaler talk about the time Wikipedia falsely implicated Seigenthaler in the death of John F. Kennedy

October 29, 2012

October 29, 2012 On October 30 at 7 p.m., John Seigenthaler will speak on “First Amendment Challenges Posed by New Media Technology” at the Massey Performing Arts Center on Belmont University campus in Nashville. The event is free and open to the public. Click here for ticket details. On November 8 at 11:30 a.m., Seigenthaler will receive the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee’s 2012 Joe Kraft Humanitarian Award. Tickets to that event are $75. Click here for details.

Getting it Right

In the first of a two-part interview, veteran journalists John Egerton and John Seigenthaler talk about books, newspapers, and the single most important historical event of the twentieth century

October 26, 2012

October 26, 2012 On October 30 at 7 p.m., John Seigenthaler will speak on “First Amendment Challenges Posed by New Media Technology” at the Massey Performing Arts Center on Belmont University campus in Nashville. The event is free and open to the public. Click here for ticket details. On November 8 at 11:30 a.m., Seigenthaler will receive the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee’s 2012 Joe Kraft Humanitarian Award. Tickets to that event are $75. Click here for details.

A Brain on Fire

Award-winning author and literacy crusader Mem Fox preaches the importance of reading to children

By Tina LoTufo | October 25, 2012

October 25, 2012 Mem Fox believes passionately that a good book has the power to move a reader “profoundly, one way or another—to laughter or tears, horror or delight, disgust or dismay, fascination or fright. If a book makes children laugh, cry, squeal, shiver, or wriggle and jiggle in some way, it takes up residence in their hearts and stays there.” Inspired by decades of experience as an educator, an award-winning children’s book author, and a parent, Fox considers her most important role to be crusading for the importance of reading aloud to young children, which she believes is an absolutely essential component in a child’s healthy development. On November 5 at 6:15 p.m., Mem Fox will appear at the Nashville Public Library as part of the Salon@615 series. The event is free and open to the public.

Distant Sons

Tim Johnston
Algonquin Books
400 pages
$29

“Tim Johnston has once again raised the bar for the literary thriller. Distant Sons is elegant and edgy, refined and complex. It excavates the truth from the darkest recesses of the past and shines a light towards the possibility of a redemptive future.”

~ Ivy Pochoda, author of These Women and Sing Her Down