Marilyn Kallet’s poem “Fireflies” appears in The Writer’s Almanac
July 30, 2012 Marilyn Kallet, English professor and director of the creative writing program at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, has made yet another splash in the poetry world. Kallet has written fifteen books, and her works continue to be circulated regularly throughout various poetry websites and publications.
Read more
In Taylor M. Polites’s debut novel, a young widow in Reconstruction-era Alabama faces the fight of her life
July 27, 2012 Set in 1875, during Reconstruction, Taylor M. Polites’s The Rebel Wife features an action-laced plot that includes hidden money, a mysterious plague, fire, gunshots, and an ensemble cast of personalities with violently conflicting agendas. At the heart of the story is Augusta (Gus) Branson, the widowed rebel herself, who represents the irrevocable, life-altering changes Reconstruction wrought for everyone involved. Taylor M. Polites will read from and discuss The Rebel Wife at the twenty-fourth annual Southern Festival of Books, held October 12-14 at Legislative Plaza in Nashville. All events are free and open to the public.
Read more
David George Haskell’s stunning meditation on a patch of old-growth forest gives insight into all of nature
July 26, 2012 David George Haskell, professor of biology at the University of the South in Sewanee, spent a year carefully observing a small patch of Tennessee forest. His book about the experience, The Forest Unseen: A Year’s Watch in Nature, is a scientist’s meditation that rises to the philosophical level of Annie Dillard’s A Pilgrim at Tinker Creek and Thoreau’s Walden. David Haskell will discuss The Forest Unseen at the twenty-fourth annual Southern Festival of Books, held October 12-14 at Legislative Plaza in Nashville. All events are free and open to the public.
Read more
Poet Mark Jarman talks about his work, his evolving spirituality, and why the digital revolution is good for poetry
July 25, 2012 Poet Mark Jarman rose to prominence in the 1980s as an advocate of New Formalism and narrative poetry. He has since become known as one of the few academic poets of his generation to struggle explicitly in his work with questions of faith. In advance of the publication of his latest collection, Bone Fires: New and Selected Poems, he talks with Chapter 16 about his work, the flawed genius of Robinson Jeffers, and why the digital revolution is good for poetry. Jarman will read from Bone Fires at the twenty-fourth annual Southern Festival of Books, held October 12-14 at Legislative Plaza in Nashville. All events are free and open to the public.
Read moreMargaret Lazarus Dean looks back on the legacy of space pioneer Sally Ride
July 25, 2012 Novelist Margaret Lazarus Dean may teach in a college English department—she’s an assistant professor at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville—but her passion is as much for outer space as for literature. In fact, her debut novel The Time It Takes To Fall, centers largely on the NASA space-shuttle program. A lifelong enthusiast of space travel, Dean now writes a column for The Huffington Post about the intersection of space and creativity.
Read more
Veteran novelist Madison Smartt Bell talks with debut novelist Christopher Hebert about the lush landscape and irrepressible people of Haiti
July 30, 2012 Nashville native Madison Smartt Bell is the author of thirteen novels and two short story collections, though he is perhaps best known for a highly acclaimed trio of novels on the Haitian revolution: All Souls Rising (a National Book Award finalist), Master of the Crossroads, and The Stone That the Builder Refused. Today he talks with debut Knoxville novelist, Christopher Hebert, whose new novel is set in an unnamed Caribbean country that bears a striking resemblance to Haiti. “One feels the weight of the tropical air in reading this book,” Bell writes, “and the weight of blood and history behind it.” Madison Smartt Bell and Christopher Hebert will appear at the twenty-fourth annual Southern Festival of Books, held October 12-14 at Legislative Plaza in Nashville. All events are free and open to the public.
Read more
