Poetry | Chapter 16

A Refuge from the Noise of the World

The University of Tennessee’s Arthur Smith has built a life centered on poetry

By Charlotte Pence | February 4, 2013

February 4, 2013 Poets are not immune to the rush of contemporary life. Too often, writing—even for a respected poet—comes to seem like an afterthought, the work that gets done when all other obligations are finally taken care of. The University of Tennessee’s Arthur Smith is the rare writer who eschews the noise of the world, sculpting a life of quiet contemplation. Smith is also a poet who offers the kind of deep yet accessible poems that readers seek but so rarely find. His fourth collection, The Fortunate Era, will be released February 26 by his longtime publisher, Carnegie Mellon University Press. Its bold, honest, lyrical reflections offer a respite from the noise of the world.

A Humble Mysticism

The poems in Jeff Hardin’s Notes for a Praise Book leap from image to insight

By Maria Browning | January 31, 2013

January 31, 2013 Using images of the natural world to convey a deeply spiritual vision, the poems in Jeff Hardin’s Notes for a Praise Book seem to speak directly to the reader. He has a knack for shaping phrases that capture the ordinary, fleeting impressions nature delivers, as well as the moments of beauty that usually go uncelebrated.

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.”

“The First Sunday of Advent”

By Kevin Brown | December 21, 2012

December 21, 2012 Kevin Brown is a professor at Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee. He is the author of one book of poetry, Exit Lines (Plain View Press, 2009), and two chapbooks: Abecedarium (Finishing Line Press, 2011) and Holy Days: Poems (winner of the 2011 Split Oak Press Chapbook Contest). He has also written a memoir, Another Way: Finding Faith, Then Finding It Again (Wipf and Stock, 2012), and a book of scholarship, They Love to Tell the Story: Five Contemporary Novelists Take on the Gospels (Kennesaw State University Press, 2012). He received his M.F.A from Murray State University.

The Magazine at the Corner of Second and Church

Talking shop with Roy Burkhead, founder of Tennessee’s newest literary quarterly

By Tina LoTufo | December 10, 2012

December 10, 2012 In May 2011, Roy Burkhead was hit by a car at the intersection of Church Street and 2nd Avenue in downtown Nashville. (He was not seriously injured.) In many people, such an experience might spark musings on mortality, but for Burkhead it sparked the idea for a literary journal. “This event forced me to pause and look around,” he says. “I was interested to realize just how many different aspects of Nashville were represented from this particular spot of town. Maybe it was the impact of the bumper, but I started to ponder that this specific spot could work as a great metaphor, a virtual location in this actual city.” One year later, he published the first issue of 2nd & Church.

“Practice”

By Clay Matthews | December 7, 2012

December 7, 2012 Clay Matthews has published poetry in journals such as The American Poetry Review, Black Warrior Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Gulf Coast, and elsewhere. His most recent book, Pretty, Rooster), is a collection of sonnets written in syllabics. His other books are Superfecta (Ghost Road Press, 2008) and RUNOFF (BlazeVox, 2009). He teaches at Tusculum College in Greeneville and edits poetry for the Tusculum Review.

Driving the Tide (The After Dunkirk Series, Book 6)

By Lee Jackson
Severn River Publishing
444 pages
$19.99

“Driving the Tide is the riveting sixth installment in the After Dunkirk family saga, bringing to life the darkest pages of World War II―and the unflinching bravery of regular people who rose to the challenges of their times.”

~ the publisher