U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón on music, animals, and the chaotic joy of spring
Chapter 16 talks with Ada Limón, a poet whose work is grounded in the physical world, delighting in nature and urging readers toward curiosity and wonder. Limón will appear at Green Door Gourmet Farm in Nashville on May 4.
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Leta McCollough Seletzky’s The Kneeling Man explores the complex story behind an iconic photograph
In The Kneeling Man, Leta McCollough Seletzky tells the story of her father, an undercover policeman who posed as a Black militant during the 1968 sanitation strike in Memphis.
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Daniel Kiel analyzes race, citizenship, and education through the lenses of Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas
In The Transition, University of Memphis law professor Daniel Kiel tracks the experiences and ideas of the first two Black Supreme Court justices, Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas. Kiel will discuss the book at Novel in Memphis on April 13.
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Linda Behrend revives Anne Armstrong’s stories of her adopted hometown in the late 1800s
Anne Wetzell Armstrong’s reminiscences of Knoxville at the end of the 19th century have been edited by Linda Behrend in the newly published Of Time and Knoxville: Fragment of an Autobiography. Behrend will discuss Armstrong’s life and memoir at Historic Westwood in Knoxville on April 13.
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Poet Alicia Ostriker talks to Chapter 16 about wrestling with literary and cultural tradition
FROM THE CHAPTER 16 ARCHIVE: An author of both groundbreaking criticism and acclaimed poetry, Alicia Ostriker has devoted much of her work to a feminist transformation of literary and cultural tradition. Whether arguing for recognition of women’s poetry as a genre in its own right or recasting the stories of the Bible from a feminist perspective, Ostriker is a radical with a deep respect for her roots.
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Michael Nelson analyzes FDR’s ill-fated court-packing plan of 1937
In Vaulting Ambition, Michael Nelson explains the flawed decisions that led to one of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s greatest missteps: his 1937 plan to add new justices to the Supreme Court. Nelson will appear in conversation with Joe Birch at Novel in Memphis on March 5.
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