Chapter 16 - Part 521

Another Honor for Mattawa

Khaled Mattawa wins the 2011 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation

By Margaret Renkl | August 10, 2011

August 10, 2011 Libyan-born (and University of Tennessee-educated) poet Khaled Mattawa has been in the news often during the last six months, thanks to his activism on behalf of the nascent Libyan revolution. Today he is back in the news for a more literary reason. The PEN American Center, the largest branch of the world’s oldest literary and human-rights organization, announced that he has won the 2011 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation. The award, which carries a stipend of $3,000, is given annually to a book-length translation of poetry into English.

From Ahab to Akmaaq

John Minichillo’s The Snow Whale is a satirical retelling of Melville’s Moby-Dick

By Ed Tarkington | August 9, 2011

August 9, 2011 In his debut novel, The Snow Whale, MTSU creative-writing professor John Minichillo uses Melville’s Moby-Dick as a touchstone for a satirical juxtaposition of the trivialities of cubicle culture with the wilds of Northern Alaska, where men still hunt whales—to consequences both hilarious and unexpectedly moving. Today Minichillo talks with Chapter 16 about the challenges of imagining a traditional whale hunt, finding a venue for unconventional fiction in small-press publishing, and taking on the Great American Whale.

Romances of the White Man's Burden: Race, Empire, and the Plantation in American Literature, 1880-1936

By Tristan Hickey | August 8, 2011

Timeless

In Myra McEntire’s YA thriller, Hourglass, two young sweethearts travel into the past to prevent a murder

By Tina LoTufo | August 8, 2011

August 8, 2011 When Emerson Cole discovers that she may have the ability to travel through time, she’s not particularly thrilled. As a high-school senior with exactly one friend, she’s actually far less interested in time travel than in avoiding the label of total freak. In Hourglass, Myra McEntire takes a twisting, turning journey through the physics of time, but the most important journey is Emerson’s discovery of her own surprising reserves of courage, love, and loyalty. Timeless qualities indeed. On August 8 at 6:30 p.m, McEntire will read at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Brentwood as a part of the Ash2Nash Tour of YA authors.

Scenic Reads

Myra McEntire, Beth Revis, and Victoria Schwab take an innovative route to promote their books

By Tristan Hickey | August 5, 2011

August 5, 2011 Most book tours take authors only to stores in cities—and only really big cities, if publicity departments have anything to say about it. It’s a tried-and-true tactic that increases book sales and author renown: fans come to hear their favorite literary voices in person, and the bookstore’s more oblivious customers discover a new talent to add to their shelves. There are always losers to every winning strategy, however: in this case, it’s the fans who live in more rural areas where authors wouldn’t normally travel.

Styron's Choice

In Alexandra Styron’s new memoir, William Styron emerges as a brilliant novelist but an inscrutable father

By Fernanda Moore | August 5, 2011

August 5, 2011 Alexandra Styron, the youngest child of William Styron, was born the year his celebrated novel The Confessions of Nat Turner was published. In her own new memoir, Reading My Father, she aims to merge the tale of her childhood, one that was alternately charmed and cursed, with a carefully researched exegesis of her famous father’s life and work. Styron will appear at the 2011 Southern Festival of Books, held October 14-16 in Nashville. She recently answered questions from Chapter 16.

I Gotta Sing!

By Alice Faye Duncan
WaterBrook
40 pages
$14.99

“A whole barnyard makes noise ‘in the Spirit of joy’ throughout this raucous picture book, a sweetly heartwarming sing-along by Duncan. Kellam conveys comfort and happiness as the loved ones reflect sunny enthusiasm in this gladdening rendition of the Black American religious folk song ‘I’m Goin’a Sing When the Spirit Says Sing.’”

~Publishers Weekly