Chapter 16
A Publication of Humanities Tennessee

The Memoir He Said He’d Never Write

June 7, 2013 In a wide-ranging interview with Exclaim!’s Jason Schneider, musician Steve Earle has announced his plans to write a memoir in addition to the novel he already has in progress. “It’s the book I swore I would never write,” he said, explaining that the motivation for changing his mind was clear: “There were a lot of reasons that mainly had to do with money. My little boy has autism, and the school that he just started in last week, finally, is really expensive, and I don’t have that much money,” Earle explained.

De-Fictionalizing the South

June 6, 2013 When it first appeared in 1986, The Secrets of the Hopewell Box by James D. Squires was a Tennessee sensation, dealing with the seldom-exposed underbelly of ward politics in a Southern city on the cusp of social change. The book got good regional and national exposure for a couple of years, but inexplicably the publisher let it go out of print. Now, Vanderbilt University Press has reissued it in paperback, giving readers a second chance to be entertained by and instructed about a period of local history that had national implications in politics, civil rights, reapportionment, and the sensational federal trial of labor boss Jimmy Hoffa.

De-Fictionalizing the South

Buckled Up for a Wild Ride

June 5, 2013 Before her memoir, Full Body Burden, hit shelves, Kristen Iversen got some advice from Helen Caldicott, one of her heroes: “Buckle your seatbelt and take your vitamins,” Caldicott said. “Your life is about to change.” In an essay for Chapter 16, Iversen explains just how prescient those words turned out to be.

Book Tours on Ice

May 30, 2013 Humorist David Sedaris is currently on an author tour for his new book, Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls. He spoke with Chapter 16 by phone about his upcoming appearance at Parnassus Books in Nashville, the difference between his lecture and bookstore tours, and the true meaning of Christmas. [This interview is also available as a podcast.] Sedaris will discuss and sign copies of Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls at Parnassus Books in Nashville on May 31, 2013, at 6 p.m. The event is free and open to the public but requires book purchase through the Parnassus website. Click here for details.

Book Tours on Ice

The Way He Works

May 14, 2013 Twenty-five years ago and long B.G. (before Google), illustrator and writer David Macaulay published his groundbreaking book, The Way Things Work, now a classic of educational children’s literature. In 2008, he published a follow-up of sorts, The Way We Work, which applied his innovative and meticulous show-and-tell approach to the human body. Truly an artist for all ages, Macaulay has received both the Caldecott Medal and a MacArthur genius grant. On May 18 at 2 p.m., he’ll deliver the commencement address to the 2013 graduating class of Watkins College of Art, Design & Film in Nashville. The event, which will be held at the Downtown Presbyterian Church, is free and open to the public.

The Way He Works

Eat! Drink! Be Merry!

May 9, 2013 Julia Reed’s new essay collection, But Mama Always Put Vodka in Her Sangria!, is a happy, happy book, intended to make readers laugh out loud and reminisce about family culinary traditions, to inspire them to labor in a kitchen, perhaps with a frothy cocktail in hand, and then to share the delicious rewards. Reed will read from and discuss But Mama Always Put Vodka in Her Sangria! at the Southern Food Writing Conference, held in Knoxville on May 16 and 17.

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