Madison Smartt Bell considers the nature of celebrity and the role of the writer
December 9, 2011 In an essay for The Huffington Post, Nashville native Madison Smartt Bell recalls an incident in a French bistro that made him consider what it means to be a writer in an age when every reader, or potential reader, has a search engine in his pocket. When some Frenchmen Bell didn’t know Googled him as he stood before them, the novelist was a bit unnerved:
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Philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah sees honor as the key to moral progress
September 20, 2011 For many twenty-first-century Americans, the notion of honor rings hollow. The very word “honor” conjures up images of the joust or a gentle slap with a soft leather glove: haughty behaviors perhaps best left to history books. According to philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah, however, honor is the very thing we need more of. In The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen, Appiah maintains that, rather than being obsolete, honor can be a fundamental, powerful engine for social change. Appiah will discuss his work at Rhodes College in Memphis on September 21 at 7:30 p.m.
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Poet Terrance Hayes adopts lightheadedness as an aesthetic stance
September 19, 2011 Terrance Hayes’s fourth collection of poems, Lighthead, won the National Book Award in poetry this year—a prize which is only the most recent iteration of an award-winning literary career. Hayes recently answered questions from Chapter 16 via email prior to his appearances at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville on September 21 and at Vanderbilt University in Nashville on September 23.
Read moreMemphis poet Matt Cook lands on the Writer’s Almanac yet again
September 19, 2011 Having a poem read aloud to millions of public-radio listeners by the thick, buttery voice of Garrison Keillor on The Writer’s Almanac has to be a high point in any poet’s public life. For Memphis poet Matt Cook, it’s a high with which he’s becoming increasingly familiar: today Keillor read Cook’s poem, “Nonsense”–Cook’s ninth appearance on the program since 2002. Listen to Keillor read it here.
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Stewart O’Nan paints a detailed, recognizable portrait of old age
September 16, 2011 Emily Maxwell is nearing the end of life. Her beloved husband Henry has preceded her in death; her children have moved away and begun families of their own. In her old Pittsburgh neighborhood, Emily is the last of a faded generation, her remaining friends as decrepit as herself. This may not sound like the premise for a dramatic and engaging novel, but read on. With Emily, Alone, the sequel to his bestselling Wish You Were Here, Stewart O’Nan proves to be a master of wringing the profound out of the everyday. In her taken-for-granted-ness, Emily emerges as a powerful protagonist whose inner life is remarkably—and perhaps typically—intriguing. O’Nan will appear at the 2011 Southern Festival of Books, held October 14-16 in Nashville.
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In her new memoir, Whit Hill remembers the pre-icon Madonna
September 15, 2011 In her new memoir, Not About Madonna, Nashville songwriter remembers her skinny, wise-cracking, indefatigable college roommate—before she became an international icon. Hill will appear at the 2011 Southern Festival of Books, held October 14-16 in Nashville.
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