Celebrating the life and words of poet Wilmer Mills
August 1, 2011 Wilmer Mills, 41, a Tennessee poet with ties to Sewanee and Chattanooga, died on June 25 of liver cancer. He leaves behind a wife, two young children, and many family members and dear friends. Among them is poet Jeff Hardin, his friend and writing partner of two decades. Within twenty-hours of Mills’s passing, Hardin wrote this remembrance.
Read moreTennessee writer Kevin Wilson is earning widespread acclamation for The Family Fang—and the book isn’t even out yet
July 29, 2011 Critics are raving about Kevin Wilson’s remarkably original debut novel, The Family Fang, which centers on a somewhat dysfunctional family of performance artists.
Read more
Chapter 16 talks with Pseudonymous Bosch about being a riddle wrapped in an enigma published in a book
July 29, 2011 Ask any grade-school kid an innocent question about a Pseudonymous Bosch novel, and prepare to be stonewalled: Bosch’s books lure the reader into a conspiracy of silence, in which the author, characters, and plot are all secrets. In fact, Bosch’s entire Secret Series—the fifth and final installment, You Have to Stop This, will be published on September 20—is the apotheosis of what might be called the “reverse psychology” school of children’s literature: warning kids away from the dangerous book they’re presently holding is a surefire way to get them to crack its spine. Pseudonymous Bosch will appear at the 2011 Southern Festival of Books, held October 14-16 in Nashville.
Read moreThis month, the Killer Nashville conference returns
July 27, 2011 With one month to go, it’s time for suspense and mystery writers around the world to gear up for Tennessee’s annual conference celebrating all manner of murder: Killer Nashville runs August 26-28.
Read moreThe Clarksville Writers’ Conference attracts faculty and students who are passionate about the written word
July 28, 2011 Clarksville owes its place in literary geography primarily to its associations with Robert Penn Warren, but it has much more to recommend to the writing community than name-dropping historical markers: the Clarksville Writers’ Conference, now in its seventh year, keeps Clarksville’s literary spirit alive with top-notch faculty and eager attendees.
Read more
With Forever, Maggie Stiefvater concludes her haunting Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy
July 27, 2011 This month the story of the Wolves of Mercy Falls comes to its much-anticipated conclusion. Maggie Stiefvater launched this riveting young-adult saga of humans and werewolves in the Minnesota woods in 2009 with a New York Times bestseller called Shiver. Linger followed in 2010, and the concluding volume, Forever, rounds out the trilogy. Stiefvater spins a compelling tale of humans and wolves both in love and at odds. Her characters make choices out of fear and hatred, self-sacrifice and loyalty, pain and grief. And after a while, it’s not so easy to tell the men (or women) from the beasts. On July 31 at 3 p.m., Stiefvater will read from and discuss her new book at the Nashville Public Library as part of the Salon@615 series.
Read more
