In Memoriam
Ode to the Oyster
November 5, 2010 In a long essay for The Huffington Post, Roy Blount Jr. considers this humble mollusk, a delectable morsel that is, for Blount, what madeleines were to Proust. “They make me think of my photographer friend, Slick Lawson, who lived in Nashville but hailed from Louisiana and loved New Orleans–maybe even more than I do, because he could stay up longer,” Blount writes.
Still Proud to Be a Coal Miner's Daughter
November 4, 2010 Loretta Lynn was born in a coal-mining community so far from the rhinestones of Nashville there wasn’t so much as a dirt road for getting down the mountain. People entered Butcher Holler, Kentucky, by way of a footpath, and they almost never left. Loretta did, of course, and fifty years after cutting her first single, she has piled up an Appalachian mountain’s worth of milestones and honors. She recently spoke with Chapter 16 about the re-release of her bestselling memoir, Coal Miner’s Daughter, and about a new tribute CD due to hit stores next week.
Bloodsuckers in Britain
November 1, 2010 The British edition of Michael Sims‘s Dracula’s Guest is out now, and the Brits are pleased: “This selection of less familiar vampire stories is richly contextualised by Michael Sims’ introduction,” writes Jazz Jagger in The Financial Times. “A fine collection, by turns humorous, foul and ghastly.
Prizewinner
October 28, 2010 It was clear from the beginning that Lydia Peelle’s debut story collection, Reasons for and Advantages of Breathing, was something special. Though small—it contained only eight stories—and published in paperback, it immediately caught the eye of critics. (The The New York Times Book Review compared Peelle to “masters of the unsettling short story like Mary Gaitskill, or even Alice Munro.”) Peelle has won two Pushcart Prizes and an O. Henry Award; twice she has been included in Best New American Voices. No wonder, then, that the National Book Foundation named her to its 2009 list of the best “5 Under 35” writers, or that in March she was short-listed for the PEN/Hemingway award. And last night, the Nashville resident and former Bredesen speechwriter won her biggest prize to date: a coveted Whiting Writers’ Award, which carries a stipend of $50,000. She took a few minutes to answer questions from Chapter 16 about the prize.
The Other Side of the Desk
October 21, 2010 Chattanooga native and Sewanee graduate Jon Meacham has taken a job as executive vice president and executive editor at Random House, which published his biography of Andrew Jackson, American Lion, winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize. He will acquire and edit nonfiction titles and will begin his duties on January 3, 2011.
