Q&A | Chapter 16

Another Way to Be

Michael Ian Black makes the case for a new masculinity in A Better Man

By Maria Browning | September 25, 2020

Michael Ian Black’s A Better Man is a tender, funny, hopeful book, conceived as a letter to his 18-year-old son. Through a mix of memoir, comic commentary, and fatherly advice, Black makes the case against the cultural pressures that harm men, from impossible ideals of strength and independence to damaging rhetoric about toxic masculinity. Black will appear at the 2020 Southern Festival of Books, held online October 1-11.

Dreams and Nightmares

Nicholas Buccola dissects the dramatic 1965 debate between James Baldwin and William F. Buckley

By Aram Goudsouzian | September 22, 2020

In The Fire Is Upon Us, Nicholas Buccola tells the story of the famous Cambridge Union confrontation between James Baldwin and William F. Buckley, revealing both the roots of our current racial dilemmas and the experiences of these two significant intellectuals. Buccola will join a virtual conversation with Terrence Tucker of the University of Memphis on September 24.

Following the Story Wherever It Goes

After three decades in children’s books, acclaimed author-illustrator David Wiesner is still eager to innovate

By Julie Danielson | September 17, 2020

David Wiesner talks to Chapter 16 about his newest picture book, Robobaby, and returning to the Southern Festival of Books after nearly 30 years. Wiesner will appear at the 2020 Southern Festival of Books, held online October 1-11.

Making Sunshine, Nurturing Change

Acclaimed children’s author Renée Watson talks about inspiration, collaboration, and activism

By Julie Danielson | September 3, 2020

Renée Watson’s Ways to Make Sunshine is the first in a new chapter book series for young readers. Watson will discuss the book at the 2020 Southern Festival of Books, held online October 1-11.

The Glorious Pastime: Alan Gratz

Bestselling kids’ author Alan Gratz talks about his love of detective novels and a book that surprised him

By Maria Browning | August 28, 2020

Knoxville native Alan Gratz takes on tough subjects in his fiction for young readers, as in his 2019 novel, Allies, set during World War II. Resist, a companion novella to Allies, will be released as an ebook and audiobook in September. In response to our Glorious Pastime questionnaire, Gratz tells Chapter 16 what he’s been reading lately and recommends an underappreciated book series.

Seeing Other Possibilities

Julia Alvarez talks with Chapter 16 about sisterhood, global community, and living by metaphor

By Joy Ramirez | August 25, 2020

Award-winning author Julia Alvarez helped pave the way for other Latina writers in the U.S. with her 1991 debut novel, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents. Alvarez talks with Chapter 16 about her latest novel, Afterlife, and what it means to envision new possibilities in this troubled time. She will appear at the 2020 Southern Festival of Books, held online October 1-11.

Tender Headed (National Poetry Series)

By Olatunde Osinaike
Akashic Books
80 pages
17.95

“In Tender Headed, Olatunde Osinaike asks the question, what makes a man, and what makes a man like me? As he interrogates the inner and outer workings of masculinity in all its sharp and tender parts, and the way a Black man meets the world, his poems strut and duck and weave across their pages. These poems unpack the ingredients of being and make a meal of language.”

~ Camille Rankine, author of Incorrect Merciful Impulses