Fiction | Chapter 16

The Last Will and Testament of Rosetta Sugars Tramble

August 28, 2012

“McLarey’s language transports you into a richly drawn environment where, even in 1988, whites and blacks are mostly still segregated, not by law but by history and comfort, and her diction drops you into the Deep South – where we identify both the illiterate and the educated through her intricate use of words.

— Colleen Turner, Reader Unboxed

Gardener Remembers

By Tom Markham

August 28, 2012

“This fantasy interview is a smartly-rigged device for an extended rumination on the 60s/70s cultural sea change and the conflicting forces that both motivated and frustrated the artists of that era…Gardner is an intriguing, paradoxical character…he’s arrogant and self-deluded one moment, vulnerable and self-effacing the next—the standard bag of contradictions for any ‘tortured’ rock star.”

–Mike Stax, in Ugly Things #33 (Spring/Summer 2012)

Redemption is Always an Option

By Melinda Baker

August 28, 2012

August 28, 2012 When the protagonists in Adam Ross’s story collection, Ladies and Gentlemen, aren’t deliberately malicious, they’re often unintentionally cruel, the result of being unable to think beyond their own desires. What about Ross himself? In lieu of a standard Q&A, we recently sent him some half-finished sentences to complete. He reveals something about his writing habits, his love of early-90s hip hop, his penchant for cooking, and his plans to take his fiction into uncharted territory. Ross will discuss Ladies and Gentlemen at Parnassus Books in Nashville on September 6 at 6:30 p.m., and at the twenty-fourth annual Southern Festival of Books, held October 12-14 at Legislative Plaza in Nashville. All events are free and open to the public.

Football Frivolity

By Michael Ray Taylor

August 27, 2012

August 27, 2012 With Love’s Winning Plays, Knoxville native Inman Majors has written one of the finest, funniest, and most uniquely Southern novels ever to consider the game of football, especially college football as it played, hyped, and overhyped in the Southeastern Conference. Majors will read from Love’s Winning Plays at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on September 20 and at the twenty-fourth annual Southern Festival of Books, held October 12-14 at Legislative Plaza in Nashville. All events are free and open to the public.

All Woke Up and Nowhere to Go

By Tina LoTufo

August 24, 2012

August, 24, 2012 One of the characters in Padgett Powell’s new novel, You & Me, points out that some of the objects in the room in which they sit are crooked: “Should we straighten everything?” His friend answers, “I think not. I don’t think us capable, one, but I see no reason to undo the charm of things leaning. Things are finally getting in tune with us.” Readers who enjoy the “charm of things leaning” will find much to ponder in this hilarious, disturbing, poignant, and altogether perplexing volume from the author of recent cult favorite The Interrogative Mood and National Book Award nominee Edisto. Powell will discuss You & Me at the twenty-fourth annual Southern Festival of Books, held October 12-14 at Legislative Plaza in Nashville. All events are free and open to the public.

Catching the Playhouse Killer

By Lyda Phillips

August 23, 2012

August 23, 2012 Jeff Crook spins up a maelstrom of exotic characters and macabre events in The Sleeping and the Dead, the first in what looks to be a powerful paranormal mystery series. Crook will read from The Sleeping and the Dead on August 30 at 6 p.m. at The Booksellers in Laurelwood in Memphis.

“Lightman explores some of the most stunning materials in our universe, including atoms, rainbows, snowflakes, spider webs, the rings of Saturn, and much more. … The Miraculous from the Material astounds at every turn because it is science at its purest, most curious form, and is sure to bring out the child in every reader.”

~ The Chicago Review of Books