Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Imagining the Future, but Not Predicting It

Margaret Atwood discusses her work and her concern for the planet

October 26, 2010 One of the most gifted and popular writers of her generation, Canada’s Margaret Atwood has always brought a social and political conscience to bear in her award-winning poetry, fiction and critical writing. Prior to her visit to Nashville, she spoke with Chapter 16 about her work, the mixed blessings of technology, and how she’s aiding environmental causes. Margaret Atwood will give the keynote address to the ninth annual Belmont Humanities Symposium on October 27 at Belmont Heights Baptist Church at 7 p.m. She will also participate in a panel discussion on October 28 at 9:30 a.m. in the Massey Boardroom on the Belmont University campus. Both events are free and open to the public.

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Holocaust in History

MTSU conference results in two books

October 25, 2010 Dr. Nancy Rupprecht, professor of history at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU), and the Holocaust Studies Committee have received a contract to create a second book based on papers from the MTSU International Holocaust Studies Conference. The title will be The Holocaust and World War II in History and in Memory. The book will be published by Cambridge Scholars, a British academic publisher.

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The Particular Art of Magical Realism

Aimee Bender talks with Chapter 16 about her work

October 25, 2010 Aimee Bender, a modern fabulist and sharp prose stylist, sprinkles fairy-tale dust into contemporary settings and conflicts. The central conceit of her latest novel, The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, is fetchingly simple and surreal: one day, a young girl names Rose Edelstein bites into a forkful of her mother’s lemon cake and finds she can “taste” her mother’s feelings. Bender recently spoke with Chapter 16 about the book, food as metaphor, and what compels her to write magical realism. She will discuss her work at Vanderbilt University in Nashville on October 28 at 7 p.m.

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Victorian Madness and Murder

In Dangerous to Know, Tasha Alexander channels her inner Gothic

October 22, 2010 Lady Emily has not had the most auspicious beginnings to married life. Her first husband, essentially a stranger, died as a newlywed. On her second honeymoon, she was shot while helping her husband Colin, a British intelligence agent, on one of his investigations and suffered a subsequent miscarriage. In Dangerous to Know, Tasha Alexander’s fifth Lady Emily novel, the protagonists have returned to Colin’s mother’s house in France to recuperate. Naturally, this recovery is hampered.

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The Other Side of the Desk

Jon Meacham joins Random House as an editor

October 21, 2010 Chattanooga native and Sewanee graduate Jon Meacham has taken a job as executive vice president and executive editor at Random House, which published his biography of Andrew Jackson, American Lion, winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize. He will acquire and edit nonfiction titles and will begin his duties on January 3, 2011.

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Cool with the Lines

Eighties pop phenomenon Rick Springfield is back in the headlines with a tell-all memoir

October 21, 2010 Late, Late at Night, Rick Springfield’s tell-all memoir, opens with a seventeen-year-old Rick swinging from a noose, convinced his life is not worth living. Happily for Rick, as well as for the zillions of fans who would, in the 1980s, fall in love not only with his endlessly catchy parade of hit singles like “Jessie’s Girl,” but also with Dr. Noah Drake, the sexy character he played to perfection on the venerable soap opera General Hospital, the noose gave way just in time. Springfield talked with Chapter 16 prior to his Nashville and Murfreesboro appearances on October 22 and 23.

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