Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Writers’ Work

Sonny Brewer discusses the Southern work ethic, the future of the book, and editing a new collection of essays by writers about their day jobs

May 17, 2010 If anyone ever had a finger on the pulse of Southern literature, that person is Sonny Brewer. The Alabama native is the author of four acclaimed novels and editor of the series Stories from the Blue Moon Café: Anthologies of Southern Writers. But perhaps his closest connections to the living literature of the South are Over the Transom Bookstore in Fairhope, Alabama, which he owns, and the nonprofit Fairhope Center for the Writing Arts, which he chairs. All of this connectivity to working Southern writers has led Brewer to a new kind of anthology: one about Southern writers at work. As in working at actual, sweaty jobs. Chapter 16 recently spoke with Brewer about the new book, The Railroad as Art: Southern Writers and Day Jobs, to be published in October by M.P. Publishing.

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Book Excerpt: The Railroad As Art

Real Work

May 17, 2010 Hang some of those tools on the wall, he told me, some of those chainsaws or chisels or big yard forks that would hold seventy pounds of rock in a single scoop. Hang ’em up high so you can see ’em real good, he told me, after you finally get yourself an easy job, and every time you feel like griping, take a long, hard look.

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Human Wrongs and Animal Rights

Carol Bradley tells the heartbreaking story of that doggie in the window

May 12, 2010 “All dogs matter.” This is the starting point for former Nashville Banner reporter Carol Bradley in her powerful new book about unscrupulous dog breeders, Saving Gracie. She calls puppy mills a “national disgrace” and exposes it as “one of America’s most shameful secrets.” Basing her story on a successful but highly abusive Pennsylvania breeder, Bradley describes in harrowing detail how dogs are abused for profit and how difficult it has been for law enforcement authorities to stop the practice. Bradley will read from her book on May 13 at 5 p.m. in the offices of McNeely Piggott & Fox in Nashville, and on May 15 at Carpe Librum Booksellers in Knoxville at 4 p.m. Both events are free and open to the public.

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Nashville Sports History: Stories From the Stands

Nashville Sports History: Stories From the Stands

Nashville Sports History: Stories From the Stands

By Bill Traughber
The History Press
128 pages
$19.99

“Enjoy this all-access pass to over a century of sports in the Music City packed into one exciting volume. Watch from the bleachers as Ty Cobb practices with the Vanderbilt football team and Babe Ruth blasts home runs out of the old Sulphur Dell Park, or go all the way back to 1843 and witness what was then the richest horse race in the world at the Nashville Race Course. These are but a few of the stories compiled by local award-winning sportswriter Bill Traughber in this one-of-a-kind collection no sports fan should be without. Included are excerpts from local sportswriters like the legendary Grantland Rice and over forty historic photographs from the playing field.”
—from the publisher

“Bill Traughber has completed a must-have book on Nashville’s sports history. His research is extensive and covers the gamut from horse racing, football, baseball, the early days of Nashville golf, basketball, auto racing and steeplechase.”
—Joe Biddle, The Tennessean

27 Things To Feng Shui Your Home

27 Things To Feng Shui Your Home

27 Things To Feng Shui Your Home

By Tisha Morris
Turner Publishing
160 pages
$9.99

“‘If you want to change your life, move 27 things in your home.’ This ancient Chinese proverb speaks of the powerful connection our homes have with our lives. In 27 Things To Feng Shui Your Home, Tisha Morris shows in creative, basic steps how to use the art of feng shui to create an inviting, personal atmosphere in your home that will renovate your life. Tisha Morris is a certified life coach, energy healer, feng shui consultant, and yoga instructor. After practicing law for five years, Tisha obtained a fine arts degree in interior design.”

—from the publisher

The Confederate Soldier's Pocket Manual of Devotions: Including Balm for the Weary and the Wounded

The Confederate Soldier's Pocket Manual of Devotions: Including Balm for the Weary and the Wounded

The Confederate Soldier's Pocket Manual of Devotions: Including Balm for the Weary and the Wounded

By Charles Todd Quintard
Mercer University Press
173 pages
$18

“In 1861, Chaplain Quintard of the 1st Tennessee Regiment marched off to care for his soldiers as they joined the Army of Virginia. His ‘Soldier’s Pocket Manual of Devotions’ was a very popular and widely distributed devotional manual used by many Confederate soldiers. In his booklet ‘Balm for the Weary and Wounded’ (1864), Quintard reached back often to the writers of the ‘Oxford Movement’, which was his theological underpinning. In addition to familiar prayers, collects, and hymns from the ‘Book of Common Prayer,’, he adds poems, sermons, and religious texts of this movement. … Students of the Civil War, reenactors, collectors, historians, and theologians will find these volumes of immeasurable value.”

—from the publisher

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