July 14, 2010 Kate Daniels is the author of three volumes of poetry, including The Niobe Poems and Four Testimonies: Poems. Her first volume, The White Wave was awarded the Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize for Poetry. Her MFA is from Columbia University. Her poems have been anthologized in a number of publications and have appeared in journals such as American Poetry Review, Critical Quarterly, and The Southern Review. She has also edited a volume of poems by Muriel Rukeyser and co-edited a book about Robert Bly: Of Solitude and Silence. Her fourth collection of poetry, A Walk in Victoria’s Secret, will appear in October from LSU Press.
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Landscapes of Her Heart
Elizabeth Spencer, one of the South’s greatest writers, discusses her work, her years in Tennessee, and her friendship with Eudora Welty
July 13, 2010 After more than sixty years of acclaim as both a novelist and short-story writer, Mississippi native Elizabeth Spencer is still pursuing her craft. In anticipation of her reading at the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, she spoke with Chapter 16 about her remarkable body of work. Spencer will read at the Bairnwick Women’s Center on the Sewanee campus. The event is free and open to the public.
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The Power of the Press?
Sharyn McCrumb returns to her ballad series in this tale of murder—and journalists run amok
July 12, 2010 With The Devil Amongst the Lawyers, the story of a beautiful young woman accused of killing her father, Sharyn McCrumb returns to the mountains of her Ballad series. Set in rural Virginia in 1935, this is as much an allegory of the contemporary media as the tale of a murder, however. The national press has descended on tiny Wise, Virginia, and the journalists are much more concerned with making the facts fit their own stories than with getting the details straight. McCrumb will discuss the book in four appearances across the state this week; find details in Events.
Read moreNPR’s Guest
Listen today as Michael Sims discusses his new collection of vampire tales, Dracula’s Guest, on the radio
July 12, 2010 This afternoon at 4 p.m. EDT, nonfiction author Michael Sims will be interviewed live on the National Public Radio program Here On Earth. He will discuss his new anthology, Dracula’s Guest: A Connoisseur’s Collection of Victorian Vampire Stories and what he learned, in researching the book, about the natural history of vampires.
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Waking the World To Affrilachia
Poet Frank X Walker raises race awareness in the mountains
July 10, 2010 Frank X Walker grew up in Danville, Kentucky, a part of Appalachia. This mountainous region is still considered an area inhabited only by poor, white people. As an African-American, Walker knows better, and he coined the term Affrilachian to describe himself and others like him. “I believe it is my responsibility to say as loudly and often as possible that people and artists of color are part of the past and present of the multi-state Appalachian region extending from northern Mississippi to southern New York,” Walker says. He will read from and discuss his work as part of the Tennessee Young Writers’ Workshop on July 13 at 7 p.m. in the Gentry Auditorium at Austin Peay State University, and he answered a few questions from Chapter 16 in advance of his appearance.
Read morePEN Tennessee?
Publisher Morgan Entrekin joins the board of the PEN American Center
July 9, 2010 Morgan Entrekin, a Nashville native and the publisher of Grove/Atlantic Inc. in New York, has been named to PEN American Center’s board of directors. This nonprofit is the U.S. affiliate—and largest branch—of PEN International, “the world’s oldest literary and human rights organization,” according to the PEN American website. PEN is perhaps best known for its annual high-profile literary prizes, which include the PEN/Faulkner Award and the PEN/O. Henry Prize.
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