Chapter 16 - Part 9

Beautifully, Flawlessly, Carefully

A new story collection by Lorrie Moore, who recently moved to Nashville, is always a Big Event in literary fiction

By Susannah Felts | February 27, 2014

February 27, 2014 In her previous story collection, Birds of America, Lorrie Moore toed the line between tragic and comic with a grace few writers manage. Stories with heartbreaking premises, delivered with a heaping spoonful of wry wit: this is Moore’s brand of genius, and it is again revealed in Bark, a volume of eight stories whose arrival is a bona fide Big Event in the world of literary fiction—and not just in Moore’s new hometown of Nashville.

Proud to Represent Team Ill-Fitting Burlap Sack

Tracy Moore’s new pregnancy guide is an irreverent, hilarious look at modern parenthood

By Susannah Felts | November 20, 2013

November 20, 2013 With chapter headings like “If Your Friends and Family Start Acting Like Dramatic Weirdos” and “How to Eat All the Stuff You Aren’t Supposed To,” there’s no mistaking Tracy Moore’s Oops! How to Rock the Mother of All Surprises for a garden-variety pregnancy guide. Instead it’s an irreverent, hilarious look at modern breeding from the perspective of a work-hard-party-harder writer who had no plans to get pregnant—and then did.

A Twin, Untwinned

Jody Casella’s debut novel is a convincing portrayal of a young man’s staggering loss—of both sibling and self

By Susannah Felts | October 21, 2013

October 21, 2013 Just two months have passed since Marsh Windsor’s identical twin, Austin, was killed in a car wreck, with Marsh at the wheel. But what nobody imagines is the real reason behind the teen’s odd behavior. He’s seeking a “thin space,” a passage through which it’s possible to slip into the afterlife. Jody Casella will read from her debut novel, Thin Space, at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis on October 26, 2013, at 2 p.m.

Where the Plots Are

Acclaimed novelist Maile Meloy talks with Chapter 16 about why she turned to fiction for children

By Susannah Felts | October 2, 2013

October 2, 2013 When Maile Meloy—the author of two novels and two short-story collections for adults—tried her hand at writing for children, the result was The Apothecary. Intelligent, deftly plotted, magical and historical in equal measure, the novel might easily win a kid over to books for a lifetime—that is, if her parents don’t swipe it from her first. Meloy will visit Nashville’s Parnassus Books on October 3, 2013, at 6:30 p.m. to read from The Apprentices, her newly released sequel to The Apothecary.

Against the Appalachian Minstrel Show

Scott McClanahan’s Crapalachia is not like any other mountain memoir you’ve read

By Susannah Felts | September 24, 2013

September 24, 2013 Crapalachia: A Biography of a Place by Scott McClanahan is a surprisingly poignant work that manages to borrow from the Appalachian storytelling tradition as it confronts, even dismisses, its tropes and trappings. On the one hand, it’s an homage to the people McClanahan has known and loved; on the other, it’s a commentary on the fictive quality of all such biographical projects. McClanahan will discuss Crapalachia at the twenty-fifth annual Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 11-13. All festival events are free and open to the public.

An Island of Rich Girls

The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls, Anton DiSclafanii’s debut novel, captures the swirl of impulses in a 1930s teenager at odds with her age

By Susannah Felts | August 22, 2013

August 22, 2013 In her debut novel, The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls, Anton DiSclafani offers an elegantly written, reflective journey of a protagonist who begins to confront her own fearlessness and desire, both of which put her at odds with the cultural expectations for women of her time. DiSclafani will discuss The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls at the twenty-fifth annual Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 11-13. All festival events are free and open to the public.

I Gotta Sing!

By Alice Faye Duncan
WaterBrook
40 pages
$14.99

“A whole barnyard makes noise ‘in the Spirit of joy’ throughout this raucous picture book, a sweetly heartwarming sing-along by Duncan. Kellam conveys comfort and happiness as the loved ones reflect sunny enthusiasm in this gladdening rendition of the Black American religious folk song ‘I’m Goin’a Sing When the Spirit Says Sing.’”

~Publishers Weekly