Chapter 16 - Part 473

Nashville in L.A.

Science writer Holly Tucker and biographer Robert K. Massie are shortlisted for the 2012 Los Angeles Times Book Prize

By Margaret Renkl | February 23, 2012

February 23, 2012 Two Nashvillians, one current and one former, are among the finalists for the 2012 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes. Robert K. Massie is honored in the biography category for Catherine the Great. Holly Tucker is the author of Blood Work, which is shortlisted in science and technology. The winner will be announced at a gala in Los Angeles on April 20.

Tragic Songs

In a memoir finished just before his death, Charlie Louvin remembers the demons that broke up the Louvin Brothers—and cost Ira Louvin his life

By Anne Delana Reeves | February 22, 2012

February 22, 2012 A Country Music Hall of Fame inductee and a Grand Ole Opry member from 1955 until his death last year at age 83, Charlie Louvin worked as a musician for six decades; Ira, the elder of the duo known as the Louvin Brothers, died in an automobile accident in 1965. The great bulk of Satan Is Real, Charlie Louvin’s posthumously published autobiography, tells the story of their lives and legendary career together. Wistful at times, the book is not without humor, a heavy shake of salty language, and fascinating anecdotes from life on the road.

A "Major New Talent"

Knoxville poet Charlotte Pence is a finalist for the Crashaw Prize

By Margaret Renkl | February 22, 2012

February 22, 2012 Charlotte Pence, a Knoxville poet and Chapter 16 contributing writer, has been shortlisted for the prestigious Crashaw Prize, an international award for debut poetry collections written in English. The award, offered by the British house Salt Publishing, is designed to seek out and publish “debut collections of poetry from major new talents.” Pence, a recent Ph.D. graduate of the University of Tennessee’s creative-writing program, is one of thirteen finalists.

Fighting a Monstrous Injustice

Historian Eric Foner talks with Chapter 16 about Abraham Lincoln’s complex views on slavery and race

By Chris Scott | February 21, 2012

February 21, 2012 As a young man in frontier Illinois, Abraham Lincoln became convinced that slavery was wrong. How to end the injustice, and whether to treat the former slaves as equal citizens, were questions Lincoln wrestled with for most of his life. These struggles are the subject of Eric Foner’s Pulitzer Prize-winning history, The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery. On February 23 at 6:30 p.m., Foner will give the Belle McWilliams Lecture in American History in the UC Theater at the University of Memphis.

"This is a Tale of Redemption"

Novelist and Nashville bookstore owner Ann Patchett wows Stephen Colbert with her story

By Margaret Renkl | February 21, 2012

February 21, 2012 If independent booksellers had anything to say about it, Ann Patchett would be canonized. Last month, when she told the story of how she came to open Parnassus Books in Nashville, the Patron Saint of Bookstores got a standing ovation from a packed audience at the Winter Institute of the American Booksellers Association.

A Lin-erick

The New York Times invites Roy Blount Jr. to celebrate the New York Knicks’s Jeremy Lin

By Margaret Renkl | February 20, 2012

February 20, 2012 The sudden fame of point guard Jeremy Lin, who emerged from obscurity this month to lead the New York Knicks in a winning streak, has been dubbed “Linsanity” by punsters in the sports media. It was perhaps inevitable, then, that someone would be inspired to write a “lin-erick,” or to commission one, and if a limerick is called for, the media naturally turn to Roy Blount Jr., a Vanderbilt University graduate whose facility for word play is unmatched among contemporary writers.