A Publication of Humanities Tennessee

“Once His Country’s Idol, Now Her Horror”

Nathaniel Philbrick’s Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution is a grand adventure into the darkness of the human heart, the story of a man whose name is synonymous with “traitor.” Philbrick will discuss and sign Valiant Ambition at the East Tennessee History Center in Knoxville on May 16 at 7 p.m.

Funny Business

Peter Cooper—Nashville music critic, singer, and senior director of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum—relates some of his greatest musical adventures in Johnny’s Cash & Charley’s Pride. Cooper will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on May 16 at 6:30 p.m. and at The Station Inn in Nashville on May 26 at 8 p.m.

Kaleidoscopic

When Jim Ridley died last year at age fifty, he left a legacy of brilliant writing about movies, literature, music, art, and the vibrant life of a growing city. Celebrating that achievement, Vanderbilt University Press has just announced that it will publish an anthology of the late Nashville Scene editor’s most memorable film reviews. Today Chapter 16 talks with Steve Haruch, editor of People Only Die of Love in Movies: Film Writing by Jim Ridley.

Kaleidoscopic

Not On Our Watch

With the White House proposing to eliminate the National Endowment for the Humanities, Chapter 16’s editor looks back at a time when NEH funds rescued writers in Tennessee.

The March of Science

In his 2012 book, The Forest Unseen, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, David George Haskell revealed the web of life hidden within a small circle of old-growth Tennessee forest. His second book, The Songs of Trees, expands that web to the globe itself. Haskell will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on April 30 at 2 p.m.

In the Tense Space Between Two Worlds

Adrienne Berard will discuss Water Tossing Boulders: How a Family of Chinese Immigrants Led the First Fight to Desegregate Schools in the Jim Crow South at Bookstock, a celebration held at the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library in Memphis on April 29. Bookstock is held annually and this year will feature appearances by forty area authors, food trucks, live music, and a host of children’s activities, including face painting, arts and crafts, and story time. All events are free and open to the public.

Visit the Nonfiction archives chronologically below or search for an article

TAKE THE SHORT READER SURVEY! CHAPTER 16 SURVEYOR SURVEYING