An American Literary Life
The Literary Legacy of Jimmy Carter, an essay anthology edited by Mark I. West and Frye Gaillard, surveys Carter’s large body of writing and considers what it reveals about the man from Plains, Georgia.
Nonfiction
Black Women Who Changed the World
FROM THE CHAPTER 16 ARCHIVE: The historical figures at the center of Set the World on Fire by Keisha Blain are outside the halls of power: They are Black, they are women, they are poor or working-class, and they advocate ideas that fall outside the political mainstream.
A Deep Enough Grief
When novelist Geraldine Brooks received the devastating phone call informing her that her husband, writer Tony Horwitz, had died unexpectedly, she found herself unable to grieve. In her new memoir, Memorial Days, Brooks recounts traveling to a remote island off the Tasmanian coast, seeking a space in which she can engage “a grief deep enough to reflect our love.” Brooks will discuss Memorial Days at a ticketed event at Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville on February 13.
Indomitable Spirit
Chantha Nguon’s Slow Noodles chronicles her life growing up in Cambodia and her family’s flight to Vietnam to escape persecution under Lon Nol, before Year Zero and the terror of the Khmer Rouge. The book also describes the comfort of the delicious food made by Nguon’s mother, her sister, and later, by her. Nguon invites readers to understand Cambodian culture through both the pain of the past and the delicious flavors that fed hope for the future. Nguon, along with her daughter Clara Kim and co-author Kim Green, talked with Chapter 16 about how the memoir came to be.
Natural City
In Nashville Native Orchids, Soraya Cates Parr has written a fascinating first book that is part natural science, part field guide, and part cultural heritage. Native orchids turn out to be a key to unlocking hidden nature throughout the city. Soraya Cates Parr will discuss the book at Warner Park Nature Center in Nashville on February 22.
The Good Fight
Catherine Coleman Flowers’ Holy Ground: On Activism, Environmental Justice, and Finding Hope reveals an activist who knows what it takes to get things done.
