Bobby C. Rogers grew up in West Tennessee and was educated at Union University, the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, and the University of Virginia. His first book, Paper Anniversary, won the 2009 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize at University of Pittsburgh Press and will be published in fall, 2010. He is a professor of English and Writer-in-Residence at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee. He lives in Memphis with his wife and son and daughter.
Read moreRB Morris Reads from James Agee's "A Death in the Family"
Recorded live at the Laurel Theater in Knoxville, Tennessee on November 20, 2009. In this episode, RB Morris — first introduced by Agee scholar and editor Michael Lofaro and then in performance with Hector Qirko — reads the “Dream Intro” from the new revision of James Agee’s novel, “A Death in the Family.”
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Opening Moves
How an American pilot witnessed the beginning of the Cold War
In The Wars of Myron King: A B-17 Pilot Faces WWII and U.S.-Soviet Intrigue, James Lee McDonough records what is surely one of the more bizarre of World War II stories—the tale of Nashvillian Myron King, the bomber crew he commanded, and the part they played in the drama not only of World War II, but also the opening moves of the Cold War.
Read moreJames Agee's Nightmare
What’s new in Tennessee books—and at Chapter 16—on December 17, 2009
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.
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"Highway 64, Between Beech Grove and Wartrace"
Kory Wells is breaking out of her career as a software developer with her first poetry collection, Heaven Was the Moon. Her novel-in-progress was a finalist in the William Faulkner Creative Writing Competition, and Ladies’ Home Journal praised her “standout” essay in the anthology She’s Such a Geek. Wells and her family, long-time residents of Murfreesboro, are renovating a house in Bell Buckle.
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The (Im)Perfect Word
Are sticks and stones really worse than a mean name?
Writers are always looking for the perfect word, the perfect sentence. Put a bunch of writers together for a little while and you’ll most likely hear one of them declare, “I love that word,” in response to something someone has uttered. Words have power. Words mean something. Words live and breathe. But what happens when the perfect word is one that you do not want to use?
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