A Publication of Humanities Tennessee

Twisted Tales

April 2, 2013 There is little danger that Jamie Quatro’s stunning debut collection, I Want to Show You More will ever be shelved with science fiction. The New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, The New Yorker, and many other publications have hailed Quatro as a significant new voice in American literature and rightly so. Yet her odd and beautiful stories are built on the devices of science fiction: a couple who sleep in a bed divided by the decomposing corpse of the wife’s distant lover, a runner who must carry a heavy government-provided trophy through a marathon, a young athlete with a whirlpool in his heart. On April 11 at 6:30 p.m., Jamie Quatro will discuss I Want to Show You More at Parnassus Books in Nashville, where she will appear with Jessica Francis Kane, author of This Close. Quatro will also appear on April 18 at the Chattanooga Public Library on April 18 at 9 a.m. as part of the Celebration of Southern Literature, and on April 27 at 2 p.m. at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville.

Short and Deep

April 2, 2013 In a combination of stand-alone pieces and linked stories, Jessica Francis Kane presents an eclectic band of characters whose idiosyncrasies, concerns, and desires feel entirely true to life. She writes of loyal but alienated marriages, mothers physically present with but estranged from their children, and of neighbors whose literal proximity allows them to hear each other sneeze even as their emotional distance and judgment of one another make real connection far beyond reach. Kane will read from her new story collection, This Close, on April 11 at 6:30 p.m. at Parnassus Books in Nashville. She will appear with Jamie Quatro, who will discuss her own story collection, I Want to Show You More.

Nobody Ever Knows Anyone

April 1, 2013 Elizabeth Strout’s collection of linked stories, Olive Kittredge, earned the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for its evocative portrait of the triumphs and tragedies of a small Maine town. Strout’s follow-up, The Burgess Boys, returns to Maine but widens its scope by revisiting the hardscrabble town of Shirley Falls from the point of view of two brothers who have escaped a scarred family history. They are drawn back to town by a strange crime which unearths long-buried tensions that will change their lives irrevocably. Elizabeth Strout and her editor, Susan Kamil, will appear in Nashville on April 8 at 7 p.m. to discuss The Burgess Boys as part of the Salon@615 series. The event will be held in the Frances Bond Davis Theater at the Harpeth Hall School, and Parnassus Books will be on hand with book sales. The event is free and open to the public.

Work at Men

March 28, 2013 In The Beautiful Wishes of Ugly Men, Adam Prince, a long-time Knoxville resident, writes stories that move with brutal honesty through the male psyche. Today he speaks candidly with Chapter 16 about choosing difficult characters, avoiding writing gimmicks, and hope for the future of literary fiction. Prince will read in Knoxville at the University of Tennessee’s John C. Hodges Library on April 8 at 7 p.m. The reading is free and open to the public.

Work at Men

Hunting Daylight

Hunting Daylight

Hunting Daylight

By Piper Maitland

Berkley
560 pages
$6.50

“This book is fantastic. A perfect blend of Dan Brown’s religious intrigue, Michael Crichton’s scientific thriller, and Anne Rice’s vampire novels.”

Portland Book Review

South of Eden

March 20, 2013 Eden Rise by Robert J. Norrell, a history professor at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, contains both a lively narrative and a deep historical understanding of the atmosphere of the small-town South at the height of the civil-rights movement. Set in 1960s Alabama, the novel’s plot centers on a murder trial, and the book is a fine addition to the genre of Southern courtroom dramas that capture the tension between the objective reality of racial injustice and the subjective desire of most of the white population to deny it, justify it, or cast themselves as its true victims.

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