James Dickey’s legacy continues
August 12, 2011 It’s been almost fifteen years since American poetry lost one of its greatest luminaries, Vanderbilt graduate James Dickey. Dickey’s influence on Southern poetry—and fiction (we won’t soon forget Deliverance)—endures in countless archives, journals, and anthologies.
Read moreKhaled Mattawa wins the 2011 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation
August 10, 2011 Libyan-born (and University of Tennessee-educated) poet Khaled Mattawa has been in the news often during the last six months, thanks to his activism on behalf of the nascent Libyan revolution. Today he is back in the news for a more literary reason. The PEN American Center, the largest branch of the world’s oldest literary and human-rights organization, announced that he has won the 2011 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation. The award, which carries a stipend of $3,000, is given annually to a book-length translation of poetry into English.
Read moreThe Knoxville News Sentinel profiles poet Linda Parsons Marion
August 3, 2011 It came as a surprise to Linda Parsons Marion when she realized that the poems she had slowly been writing for an untitled collection amounted to an exploration of five generations of her family, starting with her grandparents and continuing through the birth of her own first grandchild. From that moment on, the book had a title: Bound. The word is “very laden with so many layers of meaning—goodness, ambiguity, negativity,” Marion told the Knoxville News Sentinel.
Read moreCelebrating the life and words of poet Wilmer Mills
August 1, 2011 Wilmer Mills, 41, a Tennessee poet with ties to Sewanee and Chattanooga, died on June 25 of liver cancer. He leaves behind a wife, two young children, and many family members and dear friends. Among them is poet Jeff Hardin, his friend and writing partner of two decades. Within twenty-hours of Mills’s passing, Hardin wrote this remembrance.
Read moreMinton Sparks brings to life the South of strained relations and small-town sirens
July 21, 2011 Fresh from sold-out shows in New York City and an unprecedented award from the Fellowship of Southern Writers, Minton Sparks continues to pursue a literary art form she invented from scratch. Now this genre-defying performance poet, songwriter, and novelist—whose fans and collaborators include Dorothy Allison, Marshall Chapman, and John Prine—is back home in Nashville, but already she’s got her eye on Broadway.
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Richard Tillinghast talks with Chapter 16 about poetry, politics, and being Southern (or not)
July 19, 2011 Memphis native Richard Tillinghast has been traveling the globe and writing critically acclaimed poetry for more than four decades. Recently returned to the United States after several years in Ireland, Tillinghast answered questions from Chapter 16 about his various roles as poet, translator, critic, and citizen of the world. Tillinghast will give a reading on September 27 at the University of Memphis, followed by an interview on September 28. He will also appear at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, October 14-16.
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