February 21, 2013 In the first installment of Chapter 16’s new series of essays by writers on writing, Nashville novelist Adam Ross, author of Mr. Peanut and Ladies and Gentlemen, considers that most common exhortation to new writers: write what you know. Ross will give a free public reading on February 21 at 7 p.m. in Buttrick Hall, Room 101, on the Vanderbilt University campus in Nashville.
February 19, 2013 Wiley Cash’s debut novel, A Land More Kind Than Home, explores the aftermath of a tragedy: the death of an autistic boy at an evangelical healing service. Cash has said that the book’s lush Southern setting is a direct result of the longing he felt for home when he was living away from it. Wiley Cash will have two public events in Tennessee: on February 21 at 6 p.m. at The Booksellers and Laurelwood in Memphis, he will discuss A Land More Kind Than Home in a live interview with Courtney Miller Santo, author of The Roots of the Olive Tree. On April 20 at 1 p.m., he will give a reading at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville. Both events are free and open to the public.
February 13, 2013 Jenny Milchman’s debut novel, Cover of Snow, is memorable and affecting, and it avoids all signs of banality, that great danger for genre fiction in general and new authors in particular. There’s a good reason the characters feel three-dimensional: though Cover of Snow is Milchman’s first published novel, it is in fact the eighth she’s written, and the eleven years she spent honing her skills are evident in this intricately woven thriller. Milchman will appear at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis on February 16 at 2 p.m.
February 7, 2013 Margaret Wrinkle has some very ambitious aims in her debut novel, Wash: to explore and reconcile the contradictions and conflicts of the relationship between owner and owned in the antebellum South, a feat she manages by opening a window onto the infamous practice of slave breeding. Margaret Wrinkle will discuss and sign Wash at Parnassus Books on February 16 at 2 p.m.
February 5, 2013 Thanks to slow and unreliable communications between the admiralty and ships at sea, naval officers such as fictional hero Captain Alan Lewrie could often exercise considerable independence once out of port. In Hostile Shores, Dewey Lambin’s nineteenth Alan Lewrie adventure, however, Lewrie’s frigate, Reliant, is under the close command of a half-baked commodore with dreams of grandeur. Lewrie nevertheless finds ways to maneuver, sometimes stepping on toes or taking considerable risks. His adventures here, as always, are rollicking good yarns, with authentic details and characters, a hero, his ship, and lots of excitement.
February 1, 2013 Chapter 16 is delighted to announce that Stephen Usery is joining the site as a regular podcast contributor. Usery is the legendary host of WYPL’s, Book Talk”, an author-interview program sponsored by the Memphis Public Library, and Mysterypod, his own weekly podcast featuring interviews with authors of mysteries, thrillers, and crime fiction. In today’s podcast, Usery talks with George Saunders about his new book, Tenth of December, which The New York Times called “the best book you’ll read this year.”
