Margaret Renkl

The inexpressible tragedy in Haiti has turned Madison Smartt Bell into the most thoughtful, sought-after commentator in the media, Dolen Perkins-Valdez talks to NPR, Rebecca Skloot throws a wide net (and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks lands in the February issues of both O and Popular Science), reviews are pouring in for Morristown debut novelist Amy Greene, and a British television show just might turn Abraham Verghese into a millionaire.

Madison Smartt Bell considers the tragedy in Haiti; Marshall Chapman’s musical is set to open Off-Broadway; debut novelist Dolen Perkins-Valdez is featured in Essence; Ann Patchett interviews Elizabeth Gilbert in The Wall Street Journal; and The Los Angeles Times really, really likes Rebecca Skloot’s face.

Memphis poet Bobby C. Rogers wins a prestigious national prize, Ann Patchett publishes another essay in The Washington Post, debut Nashville novelist Adam Ross gets a nod from The Center for Fiction, children’s graphic novelist Scott Christian Sava runs a charity auction for First Book, and Chapter 16 writer Clay Risen takes a job with The New York Times.

Knoxville singer-songwriter-poet-playwright R.B. Morris gives the world’s first public reading of the true opening to James Agee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, A Death in the Family, Ann Patchett renews her commitment to novels, Robert Hicks gets a nod from The Washington Post, four Music City writers turn up in the Oxford American‘s music issue, and Amanda Little tweaks Arnold Schwarzenegger for his “shockingly defeatist” speech during climate talks in Copenhagen.

Cormac McCarthy’s broken typewriter brings in a cool quarter-mil, and a Columbia writer helps to launch a family-friendly website. One of its first stories? A review of the film version of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.

A biography of Cornelius Vanderbilt wins the National Book Award for nonfiction, two Tennessee gentlemen launch a blog, a Nashville native signs a deal to sell his memoir at Waffle House, and Cormac McCarthy puts his writing partner on the auction block.