Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Guitar Man

With Diary of a Player, Brad Paisley the brilliant songwriter becomes Brad Paisley the brilliant memoirist

November 1, 2011 Brad Paisley is often regarded by critics and tastemakers as a bridge between old-style country music and new. His songs—he writes or co-writes many of them himself—offer sharp, catchy melodies that are also well-crafted, accessible lyrics that are also artful. And when you listen to any of his cuts, the guitar parts always stand out. Today Chapter 16 talks with Paisley about his new memoir, Diary of a Player, the story behind the songwriter.

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Book Excerpt: Brad Paisley's Diary of a Player

In “Welcome to the Future,” the first chapter of his new memoir, Brad Paisley tells the story of his grandfather, the man who gave him his first guitar

November 1, 2011 I am standing on a stage. In front of me is a sea of people, all very close together, and most of them are staring somewhat hopefully in my general direction. Some are wearing T-shirts and jeans, miniskirts, and tank tops, ball caps, cowboy hats, and camouflage. And other than the people facing the wrong way wearing the yellow vests labeled SECURITY and a few facing the wrong way who are too drunk to know better, this mob is expecting something from me.

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Considering the "Faulkner of Tennessee"

The Millions posts retrospective of the career of William Gay

November 1, 2011 An aspiring novelist in need of cheering up has two options for inspiration, and which one works best depends on the struggling scribe’s age. Young writers take heart from the stories of novelists whose first books were rejected by literary agents an outrageous number of times before finally being published and shooting instantly to the top of the bestseller lists (c.f. The Help by Kathryn Stockett, rejected sixty times). Writers well past the first bloom of youth, however, tend to have retired any crazy dreams of riding to wealth and fame on the back of a bestseller. If you’ve been writing in lonely obscurity for decades, the inspirational tales you collect tend to feature noble geniuses who never, ever give up, who slog on despite the the derision of family members and the indifference of agents, and who are eventually discovered by a visionary editor, finally seeing print sometime in middle age or later—older than you, at least.

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The Art of Censorship

Author Steven J. Tepper links controversy about art to social uncertainty

October 31, 2011 In Not Here, Not Now, Not That!, Vanderbilt sociology professor Steven J. Tepper challenges any bird’s-eye-view analysis of the so-called “culture war.” Rather than focus on national debates, like those preceding the opening of the controversial Sensation exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in 1999, Tepper concerns himself with hundreds of smaller, local conflagrations––over flags, nativity scenes, statues, banned books, etc.––that occurred across America during the 1990s. By analyzing data collected from these local skirmishes, Tepper discards contentious progressive or traditionalist labels, arguing that it’s more effective to understand––and debate––the nuanced issues that really matter to a community.

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Victorian Secrets and Lies

In her latest Lady Emily mystery, Tasha Alexander peeps beneath Victorian respectability

October 28, 2011 Members of the Victorian upper crust, like rich people of all times, feared losing their money. They were afraid their children wouldn’t make good marriages. They worried about keeping reliable servants. But, as former Franklin novelist Tasha Alexander clearly understands, the greatest fear of Victorian society was the loss of respectability. The perp in Alexander’s latest Victorian mystery, A Crimson Warning, plays on this fear as Lady Emily Hargreaves and her husband Colin race to find the culprit before the bodies stack up.

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Great Self-Doubt—and Intense Dedication

Sarah Shun-lien Bynum talks with Chapter 16 about teaching and writing

October 27, 2011 In Sarah Shun-lien Bynum’s charming collection of linked stories, Ms. Hempel Chronicles, a young seventh-grade English teacher, Beatrice Hempel, offers lovingly detailed observations of a middle-school ecosystem—observations that are immediately resonant and often suffused with wry humor, both for readers who have taught and those who have done time in those locker-lined halls only as students. Bynum answered questions from Chapter 16 prior to her reading at Vanderbilt University in Nashville on November 3 at 7 p.m.

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