Chapter 16 - Part 530

"Mac"

By Linda Parsons Marion | June 16, 2011

June 16, 2011 Linda Parsons Marion is an editor at the University of Tennessee and the author of three poetry collections: Home Fires, Mother Land, and Bound. Marion’s work has appeared in journals such as The Georgia Review, Iowa Review, Shenandoah, Prairie Schooner, Nimrod, and Connecticut Review, as well as in many anthologies. She lives in Knoxville with her husband, poet Jeff Daniel Marion. Linda Parsons Marion will read from Bound at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on June 19 at 3 p.m.

Far From Lost

William Gay gives a rare on-camera interview to The Oxford American

By Margaret Renkl | June 16, 2011

June 16, 2011 In the June edition of “SoLost,” The Oxford American‘s series of original videos that celebrate the art of getting lost in “the side roads, backrooms, cellars and psyche of the modern South,” novelist William Gay, who normally shuns recorded interviews, invited a camera into his Hohenwald cabin, where he proceeded to talk with eloquence about his hometown, his work, and how his repeated playing of a Bob Dylan tune once inspired a girlfriend to walk out: “She dumped me over that song,” he explains, deadpan.

In the Company of Red-Tail Angels

A new history celebrates the World War II achievements of the Tuskegee Airmen

By Chris Scott | June 15, 2011

June 15, 2011 In their book, The Tuskegee Airmen: An Illustrated History, historians Joseph Caver, Jerome Ennels, and Daniel Haulman detail the history of one of the most celebrated air-combat units of World War II, men who struggled against racism at home and the Nazis abroad, and who earned their wings as genuine American heroes.

Sex and the City

Bill Loehfelm’s third novel, set in a seamy corner of Staten Island, is disturbing, dirty—and irresistible

By Liz Garrigan | June 14, 2011

June 14, 2011 Maureen Coughlin—an underdog oppressed by her own low ambition and everyone else’s belief that she’ll never accomplish anything beyond waiting tables—sees something that was never meant for her eyes: either a homoerotic encounter between unlikely lovers, or an only vaguely consensual act meant to satisfy a debt. By the time the answer becomes clear, the 29-year-old protagonist has found herself involved in a murder investigation whose chief suspect is rich, powerful, and a shoo-in for the U.S. Senate. Bill Loehfelm’s The Devil She Knows is a consuming thriller that has it all: sex, politics, class warfare, and an unlikely hero impossible not to root for. Loehfelm will sign books at 6 p.m. on June 14 at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis.

"It's a Gift I Want to Give the City I Love"

Ann Patchett and Karen Hayes talk with Chapter 16 about their new bookstore—Parnassus Books

By Margaret Renkl | June 13, 2011

June 13, 2011 Last Wednesday, novelist Ann Patchett appeared on NPR’s The Diane Rehm Show to discuss her new novel, State of Wonder. It was in many ways a routine discussion about a much-anticipated book by the bestselling author of Bel Canto and Truth & Beauty (among many others), but nearly an hour into the conversation, Patchett casually dropped a bombshell: she and a business partner, former Random House sales rep Karen Hayes, were about to open a new bookstore in Nashville, a city that has been without one for the last six months. “I don’t know if I’m opening an ice shop in the age of Frigidaire,” Patchett said, “but I can’t live in a city that doesn’t have a bookstore.” Chapter 16 caught up with both Hayes and Patchett and talked with them by phone about their plans for Parnassus Books and about the story behind the store.

Giddy

Nashville writers react to the news that Ann Patchett and Karen Hayes are planning to open a new bookstore

By Margaret Renkl | June 13, 2011

June 13, 2011 When bestselling novelist Ann Patchett announced that she and a business partner, former Random House sales rep Karen Hayes, would soon be opening a new bookstore in Nashville, the city’s writers responded with joy:

Camilla and the Caterpillars

By Frances Figart, illustrated by Matt Brass
Smokies Life
68 pages
$14.95

A young girl’s encounter with an extraordinary caterpillar in the Great Smoky Mountains leads her and her family on a quest to plant a national park right in their own backyard.

This environmentally themed chapter book for ages 6 through 11 introduces young readers to important ecological concepts including habitat loss and the interdependence of native species and offers a compelling grassroots solution through native-plant gardening that invites anyone to take part in addressing the growing biodiversity crisis.

~the publisher