Nonfiction | Chapter 16

The Sound of Soul

Robert Gordon talks with Chapter 16 about Respect Yourself, his new history of Stax Records

By Stephen Usery | July 22, 2014

July 22, 2014 Robert Gordon’s Respect Yourself: Stax Records and the Soul Explosion is a propulsive page-turner about a white fiddler and bank employee named Jim Stewart and his sister, Estelle Axton, who built the Stax Record label in the Soulsville neighborhood of Memphis. Robert Gordon will appear at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville October 10-12, 2014. All festival events are free and open to the public.

John Seigenthaler, 1927-2014

Legendary journalist John Seigenthaler has died at his home in Nashville

By Margaret Renkl | July 11, 2014

July 11, 2014 John Seigenthaler—revered reporter, editor, author, and advocate for books, civil rights, and the First Amendment—died today after a long struggle with cancer. He was eighty-six.

Purely Dogs

Celebrated photographer Maude Schuyler Clay documents the un-pampered canines of the Mississippi Delta

By Maria Browning | July 9, 2014

July 9, 2014 In Delta Dogs, Maude Schuyler Clay captures the beauty, nobility, and sadness of rural Mississippi’s canine denizens. The book also features an introduction by fiction writer Brad Watson and an essay by poet Beth Ann Fennelly. Clay will discuss the collection at Burke’s Book Store in Memphis on July 17, 2014, at 5:30 p.m.

“The South Got Something to Say”

Zandria F. Robinson’s book about black Memphians offers rich insight into the post-civil-rights era

By Peter Kuryla | July 1, 2014

July 1, 2014 While recognizing that there are multiple Souths and “as many ways to be black as there are black people,” Zandria Robinson of the University of Memphis works to understand the multiple ways in which black people perform and make use of a Southern identity in their daily lives.

Collective Cooking

Nancy Vienneau shares seasonal delicacies from Nashville’s famed Third Thursday Community Potluck

By Paul V. Griffith | June 24, 2014

June 24, 2014 Nancy Vienneau seeks to elevate the humble potluck supper beyond images of folding chairs and jello molds. Her Third Thursday Community Potluck Cookbook: Recipes and Stories to Celebrate the Bounty of the Moment features the best of the Third Thursday Community Potluck, a near-legendary Nashville group that revels in creative, seasonal, and fresh menu items. Vienneau will discuss and sign Third Thursday Community Potluck Cookbook at Parnassus Books in Nashville on June 25, 2014, at 6:30 p.m.

Against All Odds

A new epistolary memoir captures the love story of former death-row inmate Damien Echols and his wife, Lorri Davis

By Sarah Norris | June 23, 2014

June 23, 2014 To create their new epistolary memoir, Yours for Eternity: A Love Story on Death Row, Damien Echols and Lorri Davis revisited the thousands of letters they exchanged between 1996 and 2011 while Echols was imprisoned as one of the falsely accused West Memphis Three.

Tias and Primas: On Knowing and Loving the Women Who Raise Us

By Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez, illustrated by Josie Del Castillo
Seal Press
304 pages
$30

“Within these pages, I found my abuela, my tías and my primas — laughing, crying, and nodding alongside me. This book is a gift of understanding, and loving one’s family, even when our families are complicated and painful. It’s a beautiful reminder of the power of storytelling and the profound connection of kinship.”

~ Paola Mendoza, author, organizer and filmmaker