November 24, 2010 The good news keeps coming for Tennessee writers. This week, Blas Falconer, associate professor of English at Austin Peay State University, received a National Endowment for the Arts 2011 Fellowship in Literature. One of forty-two poets from around the country selected, Falconer will receive $25,000 with the award.
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It's the Dressing, Dummy
Devon O’Day talks with Chapter 16 about what makes Thanksgiving Thanksgiving
November 24, 2010 “No one who cooks, cooks alone,” wrote the great food writer and novelist Laurie Colwin. “Even at her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past, the advice and menus of cooks present, the wisdom of cookbook writers.” Drawing forth stories and recipes for the everyday cook who wants not only to feed the family, but also to nourish them, Devon O’Day’s My Southern Food: A Celebration of the Flavors of the South is a book in which the memories and voices of generations of family cooks are ever present. With the holidays approaching, Chapter 16 talked with O’Day about everything from what’s in a dump cake to her first food memories.
Read moreA Good Writer and a Good Fellow
Tony Earley is tapped by the prestigious Fellowship of Southern Writers
November 23, 2010 Nashville writer Tony Earley, whose critically acclaimed novels Jim the Boy and The Blue Star are set in the mountains of western North Carolina, has been elected a new member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. The organization was founded in 1987 by Southern luminaries like Cleanth Brooks, Fred Chappell, James Dickey, Shelby Foote, John Hope Franklin, Walker Percy, Reynolds Price, Robert Penn Warren, Eudora Welty, and C.
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Cooking for the Occasion
Patsy Caldwell and Amy Lyles Wilson organize their recipes by what life calls for
November 23, 2010 The first sign of Southern originality in Bless Your Heart: Saving the World One Covered Dish At A Time comes right in the table of contents. Authors Patsy Caldwell and Amy Lyles Wilson haven’t created chapters based upon the course or the main ingredient, as most cookbooks are arranged. Rather, chapters are drawn from everyday life experiences because there truly is a proper type of dish for every occasion. From book-club meetings to family reunions, the two authors provide a wealth of Southern standby recipes for the home cook to enjoy and, more importantly, to share. Caldwell and Wilson took the time to answer a few questions from Chapter 16 about their first collaboration.
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The Season's the Reason … for Delicious Southern Cooking
Tammy Algood emphasizes seasonality and freshness in The Complete Southern Cookbook, an ambitious collection of the South’s best recipes
November 22, 2010 At a time when bookstore shelves are sagging with glossy, Food Network-style cookbooks, Tammy Algood’s The Complete Southern Cookbook is an anomaly. It contains no stylish pictures or fancy ingredients, no delectable yet impossible-to-pull-off meal plans or fancifully-coiffed celebrity chefs. But what Algood’s book lacks in glitz it makes up for in practicality — which is, after all, what most home chefs really need. In crisp, no-nonsense recipes, Algood takes readers on a virtual tour of the Southern kitchen.
Read more"Studies in Modern Mycology"
The Washington Post publishes a rare short story by Ann Patchett
November 22, 2010 Ann Patchett is the author of five novels—not counting the forthcoming State of Wonder, which is due in June—and two books of nonfiction. Though her first published work was a short story which appeared in The Paris Review, and though she is the editor of the 2006 edition of Best American Short Stories, she is not especially well known for her own short fiction. Fortunately, the Holiday Fiction Issue of The Washington Post offers a rare example of Patchett’s mastery of the short-story form:
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