Q&A | Chapter 16

Always Graceful

Margaret Renkl discusses her new essay collection, Graceland, at Last

By Jim Patterson | September 8, 2021

Graceland, at Last: Notes on Hope and Heartache from the American South collects 60 of Margaret Renkl’s essays for The New York Times. Her fascinating explanations of the natural world are the standouts, but she also weighs in with authority on politics and culture. Renkl will discuss the book at a free ticketed event held in Harpeth Hall’s Frances Bond Davis Theater in Nashville on September 14, at a virtual event hosted by Novel in Memphis on September 16, and at the online 2021 Southern Festival of Books.

Hoop Dreams — and Nightmares

Keith B. Wood explores the meaning of basketball in Memphis

By Aram Goudsouzian | August 27, 2021

In Memphis Hoops, Keith B. Wood examines how basketball promoted racial unity in Memphis, while also reflecting the city’s persistent prejudices. It centers around Larry Finch, a local legend as both player and coach.

Politics for Christians

Former governor Bill Haslam discusses the role of faith in government

By Jim Patterson | August 16, 2021

Former Tennessee governor Bill Haslam does a deep dive into the two subjects not fit for polite conversation in Faithful Presence: The Promise and the Peril of Faith in the Public Square. Haslam, also the former mayor of Knoxville, outlines a way of approaching the role of religious faith in the hardball arena of politics. He will appear at the online 2021 Southern Festival of Books.

Spanks for the Memories

Stephen K. Stein discusses the BDSM movement in modern America

By Aram Goudsouzian | August 12, 2021

In Sadomasochism and the BDSM Community in the United States, University of Memphis historian Stephen K. Stein explains how a sexual community organized itself and found wider acceptance.

The Comedy of Empathy

Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Andrew Sean Greer talks with Chapter 16 about finding his way into a story

By Lee Conell | July 14, 2021

From the Chapter 16 archive: “Doubt is essential to the writing life,” Andrew Sean Greer says. “If you only had arrogance, you’d write a book that’s all ego.”

The Body as Storyteller

Chanelle Benz talks with Chapter 16 about her debut story collection, The Man Who Shot Out My Eye Is Dead

By Stephen Usery | July 6, 2021

From the Chapter 16 archive: “When I was a kid, I loved any kind of historical drama. I loved being transported to different worlds, historical or fantastical.” Fiction writer—and new Memphis transplant—Chanelle Benz talks with Chapter 16.

The Rise and Fall of Treason in English History

By Allen Boyer and Mark Nicholls
Routledge
340 pages
$180

The book “explores the reasons why treason coalesced around specific offences agreed by both the monarch and the wider political nation, why it became an essential instrument of enforcement in high politics, and why, over the past three hundred years, it has gradually fallen into disuse while remaining on the statute book.”

~the publisher