Features
Landscapes of Her Heart
Elizabeth Spencer, one of the South's greatest writers, discusses her work, her years in Tennessee, and her friendship with Eudora Welty
by Maria Browning
July 13, 2010 After more than sixty years of acclaim as both a novelist and short-story writer, Mississippi native Elizabeth Spencer is still pursuing her craft. In anticipation of her reading at the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, she spoke with Chapter 16 about her remarkable body of work. Spencer will read at the Bairnwick Women’s Center on the Sewanee campus. The event is free and open to the public.
Published Tuesday, 13 July 2010
Putting the Fan in Fantasy
Graphic novelist Scott Christian Sava has ten million readers to keep happy every day
by Susannah Felts
June 25, 2010 After Franklin, Tennessee, graphic novelist Scott Christian Sava accomplished his childhood dream of illustrating an issue of the Spider-Man comic, he set his sights on creating an epic fantasy narrative of his own. The result, The Dreamland Chronicles, is now one of the most popular web comics in existence, read daily by more than ten million readers worldwide. And that's not even counting the audience for his books.
Published Friday, 25 June 2010
Across the Age Barrier
Poets from Youth Speaks Nashville add their voices to Nashville's literary census
by Maria Browning
June 1, 2010 Youth Speaks Nashville gives teens the opportunity to learn and express themselves through spoken-word poetry. Some of its talented young poets will add their voices to Nashville Now: 2010 Spoken Word Census, a portrait of the city in poetry, prose, and song. The three-day series of events will take place at the Darkhorse Theater at 7:30 p.m. on June 3, 4, and 5.
Published Tuesday, 1 June 2010
Catcher in the National Spotlight
Siori Koerner's letter to J.D. Salinger wins the Murfreesboro eighth-grader top honors in the Letters About Literature contest
by Susannah Felts
May 31, 2010 It began as just another school essay, with a due date for a grade. The assignment: to choose a book that speaks to you—any book you wish—and write a letter to its author, explaining how the story sheds new light on your own life experiences. Siori Koerner's letter to J.D. Salinger ultimately won its author, an eighth grader from Murfreesboro, top honors in this year's Letters About Literature contest, a national program sponsored by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.
Published Monday, 31 May 2010
Writers' Work
Sonny Brewer discusses the Southern work ethic, the future of the book, and editing a new collection of essays by writers about their day jobs
by Michael Ray Taylor
May 17, 2010 If anyone ever had a finger on the pulse of Southern literature, that person is Sonny Brewer. The Alabama native is the author of four acclaimed novels and editor of the series Stories from the Blue Moon Café: Anthologies of Southern Writers. But perhaps his closest connections to the living literature of the South are Over the Transom Bookstore in Fairhope, Alabama, which he owns, and the nonprofit Fairhope Center for the Writing Arts, which he chairs. All of this connectivity to working Southern writers has led Brewer to a new kind of anthology: one about Southern writers at work. As in working at actual, sweaty jobs. Chapter 16 recently spoke with Brewer about the new book, The Railroad as Art: Southern Writers and Day Jobs, to be published in October by M.P. Publishing.
Published Monday, 17 May 2010
Book Excerpt: The Railroad As Art
Real Work
by Rick Bragg
May 17, 2010 Hang some of those tools on the wall, he told me, some of those chainsaws or chisels or big yard forks that would hold seventy pounds of rock in a single scoop. Hang 'em up high so you can see 'em real good, he told me, after you finally get yourself an easy job, and every time you feel like griping, take a long, hard look.
Published Monday, 17 May 2010
Looking Forward to a Life in Poetry
Vanderbilt grad student Stephanie Pruitt garners national recognition
by Maria Browning
May 14, 2010 As she prepared to receive her M.F.A. degree in creative writing from Vanderbilt this month, Nashville native Stephanie Pruitt found herself unexpectedly listed—along with the likes of Rita Dove and Gwendolyn Brooks—as one of Essence magazine's "Forty Favorite Poets." She spoke with Chapter 16 about the national recognition, and about her dedication to poetry.
Published Friday, 14 May 2010
The Human Whisperer
For kids who struggle to read, therapy dogs can be the best teachers
by Susannah Felts
On an early spring day, a visitor comes to Nashville's Julia Green Elementary School. Her name is Emma, and she sits on the floor on a lime green blanket, in front of low shelves packed with books. Before long, a first-grader named Meghan joins Emma and reads her a story, finding her way slowly but confidently through the unfamiliar words. How does a dog help a child learn to read? Rachel McPherson, author of Every Dog Has a Gift: True Stories of Dogs Who Bring Hope & Healing into Our Lives, will be at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Nashville on April 13 at 7 p.m. to discuss her book about therapy dogs like Emma.
Published Monday, 12 April 2010
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
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
- 1 of 3
- ››
