“A Haunting of My Own Name”
Damaged Goods
Both in and out of Place
The Best-Laid Plans
Looking Back on 50 Years of Tennessee Books
Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby
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Something’s in the Water

The rich and fertile ground of Kentucky roots music is the subject of Jason Howard

By Paul McCoy |

September 28, 2012 Kentucky has been primarily known for its folk music: ballads and string bands in Eastern Kentucky, jug bands along the Ohio River, more thumbpickers than you can swing a cat at in the Western Kentucky coal fields, and of course, bluegrass. But the modern sounds emerging from Kentucky are as varied as its landscape, encompassing not only country and folk but also indie-rock, jazz, gospel, blues, and rap. In his new book, A Few Honest Words: The Kentucky Roots of Popular Music, Jason Howard provides intimate profiles of a few Kentucky musicians who draw on their sense of place to inform their art. Among these venerable musicians is the iconic Naomi Judd, who will appear with Howard at Nashville’s Southern Festival of Books on October 12 at 3 p.m. in the Nashville Public Library Auditorium. All festival events are free and open to the public.

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Misfits and Magic

Wendy Welch tells the charming, true story of the little bookstore that could

By Tina LoTufo |

September 27, 2012 When Wendy Welch and her Scottish husband, Jack Beck, decided to open a used bookstore in the small town of Big Stone Gap, Virginia, they had a whimsical vision of what their lives would be like. Soon enough, they were introduced to the long hours, aching backs, small margins, and myriad problems that make up the life of an independent bookseller. In The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap, Welch describes the evolution of their business, as they are led full-circle to the realization that, despite all the headaches, “Bookshops are magic, and books are the road maps by which misfits find each other.” Wendy Welch will discuss The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on October 6 at 2 p.m., Parnassus Books in Nashville on November 8 at 6:30 p.m., and at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis on November 9 at 6 p.m.

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Step Aside for the Talking Dog

Tony Earley discusses his new short story in The New Yorker

By Emily Choate |

September 27, 2012 In the current issue of The New Yorker, Nashvillian Tony Earley takes Jack from “Jack and the Beanstalk” on a wild new adventure, pitting him against a stubborn dog guarding a bridge.

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New Honors for Graves

Jesse Grave Wins Appalachian Writers Association Book of the Year

By Emily Choate |

September 26, 2012 Johnson City poet Jesse Graves continues to rack up honors for his first poetry collection, Tennessee Landscape with Blighted Pine. Last week, Graves won the Appalachian Writers Association Book of the Year Award. Graves will receive the award at the Southern Appalachian Culture Festival at Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs, North Carolina.

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Eating Those Poisonous Words

New-wave novelist Ben Marcus talks with Chapter 16 about language, religion, and the inspiration for The Flame Alphabet

By Tom Markham |

September 26, 2012 Ben Marcus’s new novel, The Flame Alphabet, takes place in a world that seems at first not too dissimilar from our own, but there is one exception: speech and the written word have become fatally poisonous. Young children appear to be the source of the “infection,” and Marcus’s protagonist, Samuel, must find a way to care for his ailing wife and hang on to his increasingly distant daughter, who carries the poison of language and, like all other children, has become an enemy to adults. Ben Marcus will discuss The Flame Alphabet at Nashville’s Southern Festival of Books on October 13 at 3 p.m. in Legislative Plaza, Room 16. All festival events are free and open to the public.

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“New Frontier, 1970”

By Kory Wells |

September 26, 2012 Kory Wells often performs her poetry with her daughter Kelsey, an old-time musician, in an act that’s been called “hillbilly cool” and “moving, fun, spiritual, and sassy.” Decent Pan of Cornbread, the first album by the Murfreesboro duo, is out this fall. Kory is author of the poetry chapbook Heaven Was the Moon (March Street Press). Her novel-in-progress was a William Faulkner competition finalist, and her “standout” nonfiction has been praised by Ladies’ Home Journal. Her work appears in Christian Science Monitor, Ruminate, Rock & Sling, Deep South Magazine, Now & Then, New Southerner, Literary Mama, and other publications. Kory and Kelsey Wells will appear at the Scarritt-Bennett Center in Nashville on September 27 at 7 p.m., and at the twenty-fourth annual Southern Festival of Books, held October 12-14 at Legislative Plaza in Nashville. Both events are free and open to the public.

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