Earlier this month, Associate Editor Griffin Oleynick hosted Commonweal contributor Danielle Chapman for a public conversation at KGB Bar on the Lower East Side in Manhattan. This conversation included a reading from Chapman and a Q&A about her new book, Holler, a provocative portrait of her Southern, military childhood. 

In praise for Chapman’s latest work, Ilya Kaminsky said it was “a beautiful memoir…as devastating as American history itself,” noting that “few can write prose as musical and precise[.]” Marilynne Robinson, for her part, said, “Holler traces out the strands of self, place, and history that bind us to any past we claim or disclaim.” Phil Klay suggests Chapman “offers a brave and insightful path forward as we confront the past.” And poet Fanny Howe insists “Chapman has broken into the past without prejudice. This is new.”

And what do we say? We say it was a marvel: not only is the book beautiful, but gathering among friends and strangers on the second floor of a dark bar for an exceptionally rich and nourishing conversation seems to suit Commonweal just as well as academic halls or conference conventions (maybe it even suits us better?).