September 1, 2011 In his funny, whimsical debut novel, The Family Fang, Kevin Wilson creates a familiar family drama with an outrageous twist. Kevin Wilson will appear at the 2011 Southern Festival of Books, held October 14-16 in Nashville.
August 26, 2011 Already pushing forty, Georgia Bottoms somehow remains the legendary bombshell of Six Points, Alabama, without missing a single Sunday service at the First Baptist Church, and despite a revolving-door cast of gentleman—including the pastor, the sheriff, a prominent judge, and a bank president—all of whom are devoted to her charms and completely unaware that they are not the only “caller” entertained by Miss Georgia in her garage-apartment boudoir. Mark Childress will read from his hilarious new novel, Georgia Bottoms, at the 2011 Southern Festival of Books, held October 14-16 in Nashville.
August 25, 2011 In Barry Kitterman’s new story collection, From the San Joaquin, ordinary men and women seeking a brighter future—a home, a job, a love affair, a wedding, a child—face defeat as a result of difficult circumstances and their own inadequacies. Often the painful events of the past intrude upon the characters’ lives to change the course of their future, and rarely for the better. Ultimately, though, the author suggests that a meaningful life lies less in the accomplishments of years and more in the significance of each small moment truly lived. Kitterman will appear at the 2011 Southern Festival of Books, held October 14-16 in Nashville.
August 24, 2011 With a derelict, fourteen-year-old narrator whose voice is a cross between Holden Caulfield and Ramona Quimby, James Whorton Jr.’s Angela Sloan is structured like an essay on how the eponymous protagonist spent her summer vacation. But instead of a school report, it’s a 200-page letter addressed to the CIA. And instead of recounting Angela’s adventures at sleep-away camp or pedaling a Schwinn ten-speed around the block, it tracks her father’s recent ensnarement in the Watergate burglaries and their decision to hit the road with fake IDs. In fact, it’s more or less the furious story of one crazy-making event after another.
August 22, 2011 In a conversation about his acclaimed novel The Typist, UTK creative-writing professor Michael Knight talks with Chapter 16 about taking on history, the Southern literary tradition, and living with a Roll Tide heart in Volunteer country. Knight will discuss The Typist at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on August 27 at 6 p.m.
August 19, 2011 Born and raised in a Southern Ohio holler town called Knockemstiff, Donald Ray Pollock dropped out of high school to work in a meat-packing plant. After a brief time in Florida, he returned to Knockemstiff and spent the next thirty-some years at the paper mill in nearby Chillicothe. Taking night classes, he earned an English degree from Ohio University, and he learned to write fiction by typing out the stories of authors he admired: Denis Johnson, Flannery O’Connor, Ernest Hemingway. He published his first story, “Bactine,” when he was fifty-one, in the literary journal at Ohio State University. The editor was so impressed that she convinced him to enroll in Ohio State’s M.F.A program. Two years later, his short-story collection, Knockemstiff, was published to rave reviews. His first novel, The Devil All the Time, has just been released. Pollack, who will appear at the 2011 Southern Festival of Books, held October 14-16 in Nashville, recently took Chapter 16 on a tour of Knockemstiff.
