Libyan-born poet Khaled Mattawa considers the death of Gaddafi
October 26, 2011 When Muammar Gaddafi’s forces took over Libya, Khaled Mattawa was thirteen. Now the acclaimed poet and translator (and a graduate of the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga) considers the death of the dictator:
Read more
In Yankee Doodle Dixie, Lisa Patton brings her popular protagonist back to Memphis
October 25, 2011 In Yankee Doodle Dixie, Franklin resident Lisa Patton brings her popular character Leelee Satterfield home to Memphis after a tumultuous and cold year in Vermont. Leelee believes that all will be well once she returns to Tennessee. But will she be able to settle back into her old life? Does she want to? Patton will read from and discuss the book as part of the Evening with an Author series at the University Club of Nashville on October 27 at 6 p.m.
Read more
With a new collection of essays, editors Blas Falconer and Lorraine M. López explore the varied faces of Latino identity and literature
October 21, 2011 The word “Latino” is a catch-all term, “an imaginary space for filing diverse people in a singular slot.” In The Other Latin@: Writing Against a Singular Identity, a new essay collection edited by Blas Falconer and Lorraine M. López, twenty-one writers examine the multifaceted nature of Latino identity and the way it shapes their work. Falconer will read from his work on October 24 at 7 p.m. at the Hodges Library on the University of Tennessee campus in Knoxville.
Read moreRebecca Bain’s death is a deep loss to the Nashville literary community, as Humanities Tennessee’s Serenity Gerbman knows all too well
October 20, 2011 Rebecca Bain’s voice was with us in intimate spaces: inside our cars, around our kitchen tables, coming from the clock radio beside the bed in the morning. Hers was the cheerfully cajoling voice that led the radio pledge drive, that shared the morning news, and that delighted in announcing a new literary discovery.
Read more
In Sightseeing, Rattawut Lapcharoensap explores the tension between tourists and locals
October 19, 2011 Set in modern Thailand, the seven stories in Rattawut Lapcharoensap’s debut collection, Sightseeing, offer glimpses of the country’s pressure points: the tension between tourists and natives, between citizens and government, and within families. While Lapcharoensap turns an eye to the seamier side of Bangkok and Thai outposts, his characters are often innocents, gentle spirits who are keenly aware of the pain of the world that surrounds them. Lapcharoensap will give a reading at Vanderbilt University in Nashville on October 20.
Read more
Patricia’s McKissack’s Never Forgotten offers children an honest yet gentle introduction to the painful subject of slavery
October 18, 2011 Author Patricia McKissack and illustrators Leo and Diane Dillon have created a children’s picture book about slavery that is neither maudlin nor depressing. Instead it is brave, heart-rending, visually breathtaking, truly magical, and filled with a deep wisdom that will resonate with anyone who has wrestled with pain and grief. Never Forgotten is an exquisitely hopeful, healing gift.
Read more
