Fiction | Chapter 16

100 Years of the Best American Short Stories

September 12, 2015

“These forty stories represent their eras but also stand the test of time. Here is Ernest Hemingway’s first published story and a classic by William Faulkner, who admitted in his biographical note that he began to write “as an aid to love-making.” Nancy Hale’s story describes far-reaching echoes of the Holocaust; Tillie Olsen’s story expresses the desperation of a single mother; James Baldwin depicts the bonds of brotherhood and music. Here is Raymond Carver’s “minimalism,” a term he disliked, and Grace Paley’s “secular Yiddishkeit.””

–From the publisher

Clear by Fire

September 12, 2015

“Clear by Fire is a blistering new military thriller about an American hero who, in order to clear his name, must take” down a highly classified band of soldiers that has gone murderously rogue.

–From the publisher

Diamond Legacy

September 9, 2015

“Matt and Miranda will have to work together if they want to save Katanga, and both of their lives, before it’s too late.”

–From the publisher

Pining for Dead Men

Lorraine Lopez’s novel The Darling follows the misadventures of a book-obsessed heroine

By Emily Choate | September 8, 2015

September 8, 2015 At any given moment, the fate of the feisty young heroine of Lorraine Lopez’s new novel would seem to rise and fall at the mercy of whatever book she’s reading. Written with humor, The Darling provides a delightful glimpse into the ways a woman’s reading life can become inextricable from her desires and her choices. Lopez will discuss The Darling in Vanderbilt University’s Furman Hall Room 114 on September 10, 2015, at 7 p.m. and at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 9-11, 2015. Both events are free and open to the public.

The World Will Still Be the World

With Above the Waterfall Ron Rash delivers another lyrical and devastating novel of Appalachia

By Ed Tarkington | September 4, 2015

September 4, 2015 Celebrated Southern poet and novelist Ron Rash returns with Above the Waterfall, a taut tale of mountain intrigue that combines Rash’s elegiac lyricism with his gift for fast-paced, suspenseful plotting and his rage at the continuing exploitation of Appalachia. Rash will discuss Above the Waterfall at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 9-11, 2015.

We Are Not in the Zone of Logic

Padgett Powell exercises free imaginative play in the absurd stories of Cries for Help, Various

By Sean Kinch | September 1, 2015

September 1, 2015 With his new collection of short fiction, Cries for Help, Various, Padgett Powell provides a lively medley of voices that live up to the author’s dicta that fiction should “be alive” and “be surprising.” Powell will read from and discuss his new book at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 9-11, 2015.

Red Dead's History: A Video Game, an Obsession, and America's Violent Past

By Tore C. Olsson
St. Martin's Press
288 pages
$30

“I recommend Red Dead’s History unreservedly not only to fans of the iconic video game, but also to anyone who wants to understand the riotousness — from Wild West gunslingers to Jim Crow to lynching — that darkened our past, and which continues to influence our culture. Olsson’s prose is graceful, his analysis profound. This is history at its most accessible and exciting.”

~Peter Cozzens, award-winning author of A Brutal Reckoning