Chapter 16 - Part 456

More at Peace than Ever Before

Kingsport native Lisa Alther talks with Chapter 16 about her career-retrospective story collection

By Tina LoTufo | October 19, 2012

October 19, 2012 In Stormy Weather & Other Stories, bestselling author and Kingsport native Lisa Alther has put together a collection of short stories written throughout her decades-long career. The selections are lively and varied, and together they represent a body of work that reaches all the way back to the publication of her first novel, Kinflicks, in 1976. Most recently, Alther returned to Appalachia as she researched Blood Feud, an accounting of the famous feud between the Hatfield and McCoy families. On October 25, Lisa Alther will be inducted into the East Tennessee Writers Hall of Fame and also receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from Knoxville’s Friends of Literacy.

Joyful Mischief

Memphis writer Steve Stern earns praise for The Book of Mischief

By Emily Choate | October 19, 2012

October 19, 2012 Memphis native Steve Stern’s collection of new and selected short stories, The Book of Mischief, has received a warm review in The New York Times.

A Recognition of the World’s Mystery

Dan Chaon talks with Chapter 16 about his unsettling new story collection, Stay Awake

By Adam Prince | October 18, 2012

October 18, 2012 Dan Chaon first made his name as a writer of short stories, with work appearing in The Best American Short Stories, Pushcart Prize, and The O. Henry Prize Stories. After publishing two highly acclaimed story collections (the second collection, Among the Missing, was a finalist for the National Book Award), Chaon went on to write two stunning novels: You Remind Me of Me and Await Your Reply. It might be tempting to see his latest offering, a short-story collection called Stay Awake, as a return to form, but the book is actually the author’s most visionary work to date. Dan Chaon will give a reading on October 18 at Vanderbilt University in Nashville as part of the Gertrude and Harold Vanderbilt Visiting Writers Series. The event, which is free and open to the public, will take place at 7 p.m. in Buttrick 101.

Seeing Better in the Dark

In Live by Night, Dennis Lehane fuses the elements of Chandler-style noir with the grisly violence and moral ambiguity of The Godfather

By Ed Tarkington | October 17, 2012

October 17, 2012 Dennis Lehane built his literary reputation on postmodern thrillers that explore the lives of damaged South Boston cops, criminals, and private detectives. His masterpiece, Mystic River, marked him as a genre-bending literary artist who had achieved a rare alchemy of popular and critical appeal. Lehane’s reputation (and audience) has since grown exponentially, thanks to award-winning film adaptations of his work—Clint Eastwood’s Mystic River, Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island, and Ben Affleck’s Gone, Baby, Gone—and his teleplay work for HBO’s The Wire. In his new novel, Live by Night, Lehane offers all the tropes of noir: morally dubious anti-heroes; femmes fatales; cars, guns, and sharp suits; doomed love; and, above all, violence. Lehane will read from Live by Night at the Nashville Public Library on October 23 at 6:15 p.m. as part of the Salon@615 series. The event is free and open to the public.

Very Brave

Sherman Alexie’s new collection, Blasphemy, combines material from across his award-winning career as a masterful chronicler of contemporary Native American life

By Ed Tarkington | October 16, 2012

October 16, 2012 Since his emergence in 1994 with the acclaimed collection The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, Sherman Alexie has mapped a career both prolific and virtuosic, penning dozens of stories, novels, poems, and screenplays. His work has been recognized with countless awards and honors, including the PEN/Faulkner, PEN/Malamud, and PEN/Hemingway Awards and the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. Alexie is a gifted speaker, and his dynamic and irreverent performances draw unusually large crowds for literary readings. Sherman Alexie will appear on October 18 at Montgomery Bell Academy as part of the Salon@615 series . The event, which is free and open to the public, begins at 6:15 p.m. in the Dead Poets Society Auditorium in Lowry Hall, with a signing to follow. Parnassus Books will be on hand to sell copies.

The Death Detective

Patricia Cornwell talks with Chapter 16 about The Bone Bed, her twentieth thriller featuring forensic pathologist Kay Scarpetta

By Sarah Norris | October 15, 2012

October 15, 2012 Creator of one of the world’s most popular crime solvers, Patricia Cornwell pioneered the genre of forensic thrillers, opening the door for countless similar books and television shows. Since 1990, her chronicles of Dr. Kay Scarpetta, a medical examiner, have been published in more than 120 countries and have sold more than 100 million copies. Patricia Cornwell will discuss The Bone Bed on October 20 at 1 p.m. at University School of Nashville 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