Nonfiction | Chapter 16

Wake Up!

In The Future, Al Gore warns readers of cliffs far more precarious than fiscal ones

By Paul V. Griffith | January 28, 2013

January 28, 2013 In his new book, The Future, Al Gore condemns the corrupting influence of money and warns of the destructive power of “emergent phenomena” which have the power to destroy life as we know it. Gore will appear at Belmont University in Nashville on February 2 at 2 p.m., and at the Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis on February 18 at 12 noon. Both events require book purchase for entrance. Click here for event details in Nashville and here for those in Memphis.

Beyond the Blank Page

Rami Shapiro and Aaron Shapiro turn the practice of writing away from the methodical and toward the spiritual

By Beth Waltemath | January 25, 2013

January 25, 2013 In Writing—the Sacred Art Rabbi Rami Shapiro and his son, Aaron Shapiro, turn a beloved genre inside out. Writing as one voice to insure coherence and illustrate the constructed nature of the narrated “I,” they offer sage advice for the person who really wants to write a book but should first spend more time deconstructing the self: “The self is a story and nothing more,” they note. “By now you know that you are never the story you tell.”

Fugitive Truth

Oxford American editor Roger D. Hodge discusses his vision for the magazine’s future, the role editors play in storytelling, and the depth of his own ties to the South

By Emily Choate | January 23, 2013

January 23, 2013 The Oxford American’s new editor-in-chief, Roger D. Hodge, talks with Chapter 16 about his view of editing as a “conversational” process. The point of the conversation, he says, is to serve the stories themselves: “When everything comes together in just the right way, so that the stories are winking and glancing across the issue at one another, something magical happens. You have a self-contained whole, a world within the world.”

Everything You Know about Pit Bulls is Wrong

Ken Foster’s new book aims to change hearts and minds about the much maligned bully breeds

By Lyda Phillips | January 17, 2013

January 17, 2012 Ken Foster—photographer, writer, reader, and dog lover—is on a mission to reverse the bad rap on pit bulls. I’m a Good Dog: Pit Bulls, America’s Most Beautiful (and Misunderstood) Pet is his homage to the dog made famous by both Petey of The Little Rascals and the tortured animals rescued from Michael Vick’s dog-fighting ring. Foster will discuss the book at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis on January 24 at 6 p.m., and at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on January 26 at 2 p.m.

Coming Out of the Shadows

In This Fragile Life, Vanderbilt professor Charlotte Pierce-Baker recounts her family’s long struggle with her son’s mental illness

By Maria Browning | January 16, 2013

January 16, 2013 Vanderbilt professor Charlotte Pierce-Baker didn’t understand what was happening to her bright, creative son when he first began to behave erratically. As rages, delusions, and substance abuse made his illness obvious, Pierce-Baker and her husband struggled to help him. In This Fragile Life: A Mother’s Story of a Bipolar Son, Pierce-Baker recounts the family’s long ordeal and her journey to understanding that “bipolar is forever.” Charlotte Pierce-Baker will read from the book at Vanderbilt University on January 17 at 7 p.m. in Wilson Hall, Room 126. The event is free and open to the public.

Gender Bender

For T Cooper, becoming a man was “the most natural thing in the world”

By Sarah Norris | January 15, 2013

January 15, 2013 “I’m not quite one of those ‘born in the wrong body’ types you see on Oprah or The Learning Channel,” T Cooper writes. “I actually think I was born in the right body. It’s just a little different, and it doesn’t fit squarely into the gender binary.” Cooper will read from and discuss his new memoir, Real Man Adventures, at Parnassus Books in Nashville on January 17 at 6:30 p.m. On March 11, Cooper will also read at the University of Tennessee’s Hodges Library. Both events are free and open to the public.

Camilla and the Caterpillars

By Frances Figart, illustrated by Matt Brass
Smokies Life
68 pages
$14.95

A young girl’s encounter with an extraordinary caterpillar in the Great Smoky Mountains leads her and her family on a quest to plant a national park right in their own backyard.

This environmentally themed chapter book for ages 6 through 11 introduces young readers to important ecological concepts including habitat loss and the interdependence of native species and offers a compelling grassroots solution through native-plant gardening that invites anyone to take part in addressing the growing biodiversity crisis.

~the publisher