Nonfiction
Queen of Heartbreak
Jimmy McDonough delivers the first full-scale biography of Tammy Wynette
by Paul McCoy
Tammy Wynette: Tragic Country Queen, is the first full-scale biography of the "First Lady of Country Music." A paradoxical public figure, complex in every way, Wynette's life mirrored her art—dramatic, spectacular, absurd, and tragic. Jimmy McDonough, bestselling author of Shakey: Neil Young's Biography, takes the reader as far into Wynette's world as we can possibly go: from her restless childhood in Mississippi, through her tumultuous years with George Jones, to the botched—and some say, faked—kidnapping in 1978, and finally to her tragic and mysterious final days. McDonough spoke with Chapter 16 in advance of his appearance at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Nashville on March 9, and at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Memphis on March 10.
Published Wednesday, 3 March 2010
A Visit to the Blues
Photographer Michael Loyd Young documents Delta music
by Maria Browning
Photographer Michael Loyd Young has documented cultural practices around the world, but in Blues, Booze & BBQ he turns his camera on a community a little closer to home, capturing the raucous, passionate culture of the Delta blues in more than seventy photographs of musicians, audiences, music festivals, juke joints—and, yes, barbecue.
Published Wednesday, 3 March 2010
Employed by Truth
Poet Nikki Giovanni is still speaking her mind
by Maria Browning
Since she first gained attention in the late 1960s with fiery screeds like "The Great Pax Whitie," Nikki Giovanni has been both one of America's most popular poets and a cultural leader in the African American community. Now in her fifth decade of literary prominence, Giovanni is still pursuing her craft, her passion for education, and her penchant for speaking her mind.
Published Wednesday, 24 February 2010
Writ Large
Intrepid adventurer and National Book Award winner Bob Shacochis talks with Chapter 16
by Ed Tarkington
National Book Award winner Bob Shacochis is a breed apart, one of the last survivors of the glory days of magazine fiction and feature writing, the age when writers were bold and swaggering and confident and even a little dangerous—a ruddy, bearded wild man of the mountains, an intrepid travel writer and war correspondent, and a consummate prose stylist. He speaks with Chapter 16 in advance of his Nashville appearance at Montgomery Bell Academy on March 1.
Published Wednesday, 24 February 2010
Uncovering a Forgotten Epidemic
A bizarre disease that drives some victims into fatal sleep and leaves others languishing in mental illness proves a fascinating subject for Memphis author Molly Caldwell Crosby
by Michael Ray Taylor
Epidemics of encephalitis lethargica—sleeping sickness—have long inspired literature, writes Memphis-based science author Molly Caldwell Crosby in Asleep: The Forgotten Epidemic That Remains one of Medicine's Greatest Mysteries. "Sleeping Beauty," "Rip Van Winkle," and "The Fall of the House of Usher" are but three well-known stories written after separate outbreaks of the mysterious illness, which can cause patients to sleep for months or years, if they ever awaken at all. In Asleep, Crosby, author of the 2006 nonfiction bestseller The American Plague, has written a tale as timeless and disturbing as its fictional predecessors. Crosby will read from and sign copies of Asleep at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Memphis on March 2, and at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Nashville on March 16.
Published Tuesday, 23 February 2010
Diving Into Civil War History
Historian Tom Chaffin raises the H.L. Hunley and chronicles the birth of submarine warfare
by Chris Scott
Among the technological firsts of the American Civil War was an odd little boat, built by a group of dedicated entrepreneurs, that heralded the age of underwater exploration and warfare. In The H.L. Hunley: The Secret Hope of the Confederacy, Knoxville historian Tom Chaffin details the remarkable story of the first submarine to sink an enemy ship.
Published Tuesday, 16 February 2010
In Defense of Print
Chapter 16 talks with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Maraniss
by Serenity Gerbman
For more than thirty years, David Maraniss has been a reporter for The Washington Post, winning one Pulitzer Prize for reporting and sharing in another, all while writing several bestselling and critically acclaimed nonfiction books. A witness to the technological sea changes that have engulfed traditional newspapers and, some claim, made them increasingly irrelevant, Maraniss now issues for the first time a collection of his finest newspaper stories. Into the Story: A Writer’s Journey Through Life, Politics, Sports, and Loss reminds readers why newspapers mattered in the first place. Maraniss will read from and sign the book at McNeely Pigott & Fox in Nashville on February 23.
Published Tuesday, 16 February 2010
Against Stereotype
Award-winning journalist, author, and commentator Juan Williams talks with Chapter 16 about the state of civil rights in America
by Paul V. Griffith
As a commentator for Fox News and National Public Radio, Juan Williams is a lightning rod for both the right and the left. His sixth book, Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America—and What We Can Do About It, explores the disconnect between the decisive victories of the civil-rights movement and the ground-level state of affairs for black Americans, who continue to live, he says, "as if they were locked out from all America has to offer." On February 13, Williams will be at the Nashville Public Library to moderate a panel discussion titled "A New Dialogue in Civil Rights," which includes Rev. James Lawson, Betty Flores, and Daniel Losen. The event commemorates the fifty-year anniversary of Nashville's student-led demonstrations and sit-ins.
Published Tuesday, 9 February 2010
Food Fighter
Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser brings a message of hope to Nashville
by Susannah Felts
A decade ago, few Americans knew the disturbing truth behind the factory farms that supply them with breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Eric Schlosser's books have caused a wakening in consumers—and are slowly having a positive impact on the very system he exposed. In advance of his appearance at Belmont University on February 15, he recently discussed his work, and his recent film Food, Inc., in an interview with Chapter 16.
Published Tuesday, 9 February 2010
Henrietta Everlasting
Rebecca Skloot takes The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks on the road
by Margaret Renkl
This week in books—and in science—unquestionably belongs to Rebecca Skloot, Memphis-based author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
Published Thursday, 4 February 2010
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