Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Living by Stories

Novelist Richard Bausch teaches his writing students patience, toughness, and the willingness to fail

April 18, 2013 A Celebration of Southern Literature, the biennial gathering of the Fellowship of Southern Writers, begins today in Chattanooga and will run though April 20. Novelist Richard Bausch, a member of the Fellowship and a legendary writing teacher, is beloved in the literary community for his Facebook posts that spur and encourage and guide aspiring writers. In conjunction with the Chattanooga celebration, he has kindly permitted Chapter 16 to repost a selection of his Facebook updates.

Read more

Tough Love

Inman Majors talks about his latest novel, Love’s Winning Plays, the subtlety of satire, the mechanization of modern college football, and the toughness of coaches’ wives

April 18, 2013 As a child of the Majors football dynasty in Tennessee, Inman Majors grew up loving the sport and absorbing all the stories that come from a family with tales worth hearing a few times over. So perhaps it’s no surprise that one day he would have no choice but to write about it. Prior to his free public reading on April 25 at Nashville’s Montgomery Bell Academy, Majors talks with Chapter 16 about his comic novel, Love’s Winning Plays.

Read more

The Persistence of Memory

John Boyne re-imagines the last days of the Romanovs

April 16, 2013 When Georgy Daniilovich Jachmenev impulsively steps in front of a bullet meant for the Tsar’s cousin, he is rewarded by being whisked from his miserable existence in the squalid village of Kashin to the glorious Winter Palace of Tsar Nicholas II during the last days of the centuries-old Romanov dynasty. John Boyne will discuss The House of Special Purpose—a novel of love, regret, and nearly unbearable loss—at Parnassus Books in Nashville on April 24 at 6:30 p.m.

Read more

Inventing Ways to be Honest

Karen Russell talks with Chapter 16 about why she broke up with Amazon, how it feels to be on the shortlist for a Pulitzer Prize that was not awarded, and the distinction between fantasy and fiction

April 15, 2013Stephen Usery first spoke with Karen Russell in 2011 after the release of her debut novel, Swamplandia!. In 2012, the book was named as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in fiction. That year no prize was given, a decision which created quite a stir in the literary world. Today Usery talks with Russell about the controversy, as well as about her new story collection,Vampires in the Lemon Grove. To hear a podcast of the interview, click here.

Read more

Wild Whodunit

The second Sidney Marsh novel by Marie Moore is set on safari in Africa

April 12, 2013 When Sidney Marsh gets a plum assignment at the travel agency where she works—a long “familiarization” trip to Africa—she thinks she’s in for nothing but spa luxury, open bars, and quality time with her colleague and best friend. Then a leopard dines on a fellow traveler. Moore, a Memphis resident, will discuss Game Drive at 6 p.m. on April 15 at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis.

Read more

Decadence

By Eric Jerome Dickey

Decadence

Decadence

By Eric Jerome Dickey
Dutton Books
368 pages
$26.95

“Gideon, a hired gun, trusts no one. But when his former lover resurfaces in need of his skills, Gideon accepts. The assignment leads to Argentina and a team of international mercenaries who will maim, kill, and torture to achieve victory. One of them has a connection to Gideon that neither assassin is aware of, a secret link that reaches into Gideon’s past and plunges him into a double-cross so explosive no one will make it out unscarred.”

From the Publisher

TAKE THE SHORT READER SURVEY! CHAPTER 16 SURVEYOR SURVEYING