Chapter 16 - Part 533

For the Fallen

PBS airs Wyatt Prunty’s response to the The News Hour‘s photos of service personnel lost each week in Iraq and Afghanistan

By Margaret Renkl | June 1, 2011

May 31, 2011 Last night in commemoration of Memorial Day, PBS closed The News Hour with a feature on Sewanee poet Wyatt Prunty, whose poem “The Returning Dead” was inspired by the program’s nightly “honor roll” of Americans killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. (The program first aired in 2006.) Prunty is no stranger to combat—he served in Vietnam—though he claims no heroics: “I was a nearsighted gunnery officer, and I don’t think I hurt anyone,” he explains in an introduction to his reading of the poem. It begins this way:

Another Novel, At Long Last

Thanks to Silas House, James Still’s last book has finally come to print

By Pablo Tanguay | May 30, 2011

May 31, 2011 James Still’s final manuscript, penned over the last fifteen years of his life and with him in the hospital room when he died a decade ago, has finally been published. Edited by Silas House, Chinaberry is a moving, gorgeously written coming-of-age novel and a fine capstone to the career of one of Appalachia’s most influential writers.

"a background in music"

By Evie Shockley | May 27, 2011

May 27, 2011 Evie Shockley is the author of the new black (Wesleyan, 2011), a half-red sea (Carolina Wren Press, 2006), and two chapbooks; she also co-edits jubilat. Schockley’s poetry and literary criticism have appeared in such journals and anthologies as Callaloo, The Southern Review, Pluck! The Journal of Affrilachian Arts & Culture, Harvard Review, Center: A Journal of the Literary Arts, and Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry. Born and raised in Nashville, she currently teaches African American literature and creative writing at Rutgers University-New Brunswick.

A Gentleman Goes to Hollywood

A new sitcom based on the etiquette books by John Bridges will be CBS’s lead comedy for fall

By Margaret Renkl | May 27, 2011

May 27, 2011 Last February, Chapter 16 reported that David Hornsby, writer and executive producer of the FX series It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, was producing a comedy pilot based on the bestselling etiquette guides by Nashville-based writer John Bridges. Now CBS has announced that How to Be a Gentleman will be its lead sitcom this fall.

An Unlikely Love Story

Nashville songwriter Rodney Crowell pens a remarkable memoir of his harsh childhood

By Maria Browning | May 26, 2011

May 26, 2011 In Chinaberry Sidewalks, a memoir of his impoverished, violent childhood, acclaimed Nashville songwriter Rodney Crowell shows how love can flourish in the most unlikely circumstances. Crowell will discuss the book at a taping of “A Guitar and a Pen Old Time Radio hour with Robert Hicks” on May 26 at 6 p.m. The taping takes place at Puckett’s Grocery and Restaurant in Franklin.

An Opry Home Companion

With A Guitar and a Pen Old Time Radio Hour, novelist Robert Hicks has created a live broadcast that just might save the printed word

By Sarah Norris | May 25, 2011

May 25, 2011 When Garrison Keillor got the idea for his long-running radio show, A Prairie Home Companion, he was sitting in the Confederate Gallery of the Ryman Auditorium, watching the Opry. Now novelist Robert Hicks has created his own home-grown radio variety show, A Guitar and a Pen Old Time Radio Hour, a combination of the Opry and A Prairie Home Companion, with a dash of Thacker Mountain Radio thrown in. Chapter 16 checked in on last week’s show, which featured readings by novelist William Gay and musical performances by Holly Williams, daughter of Hank Jr. Another edition of “A Guitar and a Pen Old Time Radio Hour” will be taped at Puckett’s Grocery and Restaurant in Franklin on May 26 and will feature Eric Brace, Peter Cooper, Fayssoux Starling McLean, and Rodney Crowell. The show starts at 6 p.m. Cost is $15, and seating is limited. To make reservations, call 615-794-5527.

Tias and Primas: On Knowing and Loving the Women Who Raise Us

By Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez, illustrated by Josie Del Castillo
Seal Press
304 pages
$30

“Within these pages, I found my abuela, my tías and my primas — laughing, crying, and nodding alongside me. This book is a gift of understanding, and loving one’s family, even when our families are complicated and painful. It’s a beautiful reminder of the power of storytelling and the profound connection of kinship.”

~ Paola Mendoza, author, organizer and filmmaker