In putting together her bestseller, Rebecca Skloot found an unlikely pattern to follow
June 21, 2010 Yesterday on ReadRollShow, Rebecca Skloot answered a question about how she came up with the seemingly unique structural organization of her runaway bestseller, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Turns out, Fannie Flagg had a lot to do with it. Watch the clip here.
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Toni P. Anderson writes an engaging new history of the original Fisk Jubilee Singers
June 21, 2010 In “Tell Them We Are Singing for Jesus,” her lively account of the first Fisk Jubilee Singers, Toni P. Anderson provides a vivid portrait of the ideals and personalities that shaped one of America’s musical treasures.
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Gay-rights activist Abby Dees gives straight people permission to ask the embarrassing questions
June 18, 2010 There are no statistics on this, but given that some six-to-twelve million Americans are gay, lesbian, or bisexual, it seems fair to assume that every straight person in this country knows someone who isn’t. But as civil-rights activist Abby Dees has observed, it’s not always easy for even the most open-hearted straight people to ask their gay friends and family members about the kinds of issues they really wonder about. And without open dialog, Dees believes, it’s too easy for misunderstandings to fester, for stereotypes to persist. That’s why she wrote Queer Questions Straight Talk: 108 Frank, Provocative Questions It’s OK to Ask Your Lesbian, Gay or Bi Loved One. The book is both witty and earnest, a conversation-starter designed not to answer questions but to invite others to ask them. Dees will sign copies of Queer Questions Straight Talk on June 19 at Nashville Pride and on June 20 at 3 p.m. at OutLoud!
Read moreMichael Sims schools academia on the science of vampires
June 17, 2010 Michael Sims has at least two literary careers (and that’s not counting his budding career as a photographer): he’s the author of four books about science and nature, and he’s the editor of five collections of Victorian-and Edwardian literature. His sixth outing as an editor, Dracula’s Guest: A Connoisseur’s Collection of Victorian Vampire Stories will hit shelves next week.
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A man remembers the boy he was when his father died—or does he?
June 17, 2010 My father is buried there, in the lovely and quiet hilltop cemetery at the end of the road, the Hedgecoth family cemetery with its guarding meadow of Queen Anne’s lace and goldenrod. He has patiently lain for decades on his side of the big bed of which the gravestone is headboard. Overhead, fox and vole, wasp and cricket, perform the rote gestures and fatal spats for which nature programs them. Us. Moles bump their heads on his pillow. Roots embrace him, trying to reach his nutrients. I will be nutritious, too, some day.
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Scholar John Lang examines the many faces of God in Appalachian poetry
June 16, 2010 In Six Poets from the Mountain South, John Lang argues that Appalachian literature may reject harsh fundamentalism, but it also embraces a spirituality inspired by the mountain landscape.
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