Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

On the Map

Cary Holladay wins the Ohio State University Prize in Short Fiction

June 18, 2012 Memphis writer Cary Holladay, director of the River City Writers series at the University of Memphis, has landed the top honor in Ohio State University’s annual short-fiction prize with her book The Deer in the Mirror: Stories and a Novella. In announcing the news, the Ohio State University Press, which will publish the collection next year, wrote, “Cary Holladay enriches her fiction with historical detail, folklore, and regional culture.”

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Generation Gatsby

Jay McInerney discusses the cultural impact of The Great Gatsby

June 11, 2012 In an essay written for The Guardian, esteemed novelist, wine critic, former Nashville resident, and part-time actor Jay McInerney has set out to plumb the depths of the spirit of American consciousness.

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The Canon—In Full Color

Russ Kick’s graphic anthology of world literature is both an education and a playful romp

June 11, 2012 Russ Kick’s The Graphic Canon: Volume One: From The Epic of Gilgamesh to Shakespeare to Dangerous Liasons is the first book in a three-volume series featuring the work of dozens of graphic artists addressing the landmarks of world literature. The results are, as the saying goes, mixed—but not in a bad way. The Graphic Canon is a glorious mash-up of not only words and images, but also high and low culture, the popular and the paradigmatic. Kick will discuss The Graphic Canon at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis on June 14 at 6 p.m.

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One for the Record Books

With XO, international bestselling author Jeffery Deaver has written another thriller—and a country album to accompany it

June 8, 2012 In his twenty-ninth thriller, bestselling novelist Jeffery Deaver gives readers triple or quadruple their money: XO includes more twists, turns, and doglegs than an East Tennessee back road, and Deaver pairs the book with an album of country songs, as well. Just when you think you’ve finally hit the mystery’s straightaway, there’s another series of hairpins in your path. On June 12 at 6:30 p.m., Deaver will discuss XO at Parnassus Books in Nashville. On June 13 at 7 p.m., he will answer questions and sign copies of the book at Barnes & Noble in Knoxville.

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Unreasonable Schemes

With Canada, Richard Ford returns to the bleak, forbidding landscapes of the Northwest and the thwarted lives of those who inhabit them

June 7, 2012 In the years since the publication of Independence Day (1995)—the first novel ever to win both the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Pulitzer Prize—Richard Ford has achieved rare and lofty status as a cherished American institution, regarded mostly as a gifted chronicler of fin-de-siècle suburban angst in the tradition of Cheever, Updike, Richard Yates, and Ford’s fellow Mississippian Walker Percy. Richard Ford will discuss his new book, Canada, at the Nashville Public Library on June 14. The event is part of the Salon@615 series and will begin with a reception at 6:15 p.m. Both the reception and the reading are free and open to the public.

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