Poetry
Teaching and Unteaching—and Entertaining All the Way
For more than three decades, Patricia McKissack has been writing children's books that bring to life the stories, and the truth, of her ancestors
by Susannah Felts
As she was coming of age in Nashville in the 1950s, there were many places award-winning children's author Patricia McKissack was not allowed to go. She remembers hotels and restaurants that forbade African Americans entry, and movie theaters with a separate doorway in the alley for black patrons. The farthest reaches of the Grand Ole Opry's balcony, known as the buzzard's roost, was the only seating open to African Americans, McKissack recalls. She never partook: "My grandfather said that watermelons would bloom in January if any of his children went down there. 'We don't sit in no buzzard's roost,' he said. 'We're human beings, not buzzards.'"
Published Wednesday, 10 March 2010
Entranced
Coleman Barks talks about his thirty-year fascination with the Sufi poet Rumi
by Maria Browning
Chattanooga native Coleman Barks has devoted more than three decades to translating the poems of Rumi, and in the process has turned the thirteenth-century mystic into one of the most popular poets in America. Prior to his visit to Austin Peay State University on March 4, Barks spoke with Chapter 16 about why so many contemporary American readers are entranced with an ancient Persian poet.
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
Why the Future of Poetry is Safe
U.S. Poet Laureate Kay Ryan talks shop with Chapter 16
by Maria Browning
Kay Ryan has enjoyed critical respect and a slew of honors and awards, but she was reluctant to accept the post of U.S. Poet Laureate. A literary outsider known for compact verse that marries humor and insight, Ryan talks with Chapter 16 about her work and the experience of being the nation's designated poet. She will give a reading at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville on February 16 at 7 p.m. at the University Center Auditorium.
Published Wednesday, 10 February 2010
"Cold Wave Permanent"
by Kate Gleason
Kate Gleason, of Keene, New Hampshire, won Austin Peay State University's Zone 3 First Book Award for her poetry collection Measuring the Dark. She is the author of two chapbooks of poetry, The Brighter The Deeper and Making As If To Sing. A recipient of writing fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (in conjunction with the Ragdale Foundation), the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts, and the Vermont Studio Center, she has also won the Outstanding Emerging Writer Award from the New Hampshire Writers' Project.
Published Wednesday, 13 January 2010
Looking Beyond the Confederate Dead
Allen Tate's wife, Helen, remembers her late husband and discusses his role in the Fugitive Movement
by Clay Risen
Poet, novelist, and essayist Allen Tate (1899-1979) was one of twentieth-century America's most important literary voices. Born in Kentucky and a graduate of Vanderbilt, Tate was a central figure in the circle of Nashville writers who came to be known as the Fugitives—and later the Southern Agrarians—a group which included John Crowe Ransom, Robert Penn Warren, Donald Davidson, and Merrill Moore. After her husband's death in 1979, Helen Tate settled in Nashville, where she continues to work and volunteer. As Tate's widow, she is one of the few living links to a critical moment in American literary history and a reminder of Nashville's central role in the emergence of modern poetry. She recently spoke with Chapter 16 about her husband and his literary legacy.
Published Thursday, 7 January 2010
"Ornithology"
by Bobby C. Rogers
Bobby C. Rogers grew up in West Tennessee and was educated at Union University, the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, and the University of Virginia. His first book, Paper Anniversary, won the 2009 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize at University of Pittsburgh Press and will be published in fall, 2010. He is a professor of English and Writer-in-Residence at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee. He lives in Memphis with his wife and son and daughter.
Published Wednesday, 6 January 2010
In Her Own Right
A poet considers the lasting influence of Eleanor Ross Taylor
by Diann Blakely
Diann Blakely met Eleanor Ross Taylor—poet and widow of Peter Taylor—nearly twenty years ago in Sewanee, Tennessee. For years, until Mrs. Taylor's age and health began to limit her activity, the two renewed their friendship each summer in Sewanee, writing letters in between. On the publication of Taylor's Captive Voices, Blakely remembers the poet who gave her the best advice of her life.
Published Thursday, 17 December 2009
"Highway 64, Between Beech Grove and Wartrace"
by Kory Wells
Kory Wells is breaking out of her career as a software developer with her first poetry collection, Heaven Was the Moon. Her novel-in-progress was a finalist in the William Faulkner Creative Writing Competition, and Ladies' Home Journal praised her "standout" essay in the anthology She's Such a Geek. Wells and her family, long-time residents of Murfreesboro, are renovating a house in Bell Buckle.
Published Thursday, 17 December 2009
"Mole"
by Wyatt Prunty
Wyatt Prunty, a native of Humboldt, Tennessee, is the author of seven poetry collections, and his honors include fellowships from the Rockefeller Foundation and the Guggenheim Foundation. Founding director of the Sewanee Writers' Conference, he teaches creative writing at the University of the South.
Published Thursday, 10 December 2009
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