Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Looking Back—and Looking Forward

Editor Adam Ross talks with Chapter 16 about the 500th issue of The Sewanee Review

This fall marks the publication of the 500th issue of The Sewanee Review and a full year of issues under Adam Ross’s leadership. Today the Nashville novelist talks with Chapter 16 about how the past informs the present—and influences the future—at the oldest literary magazine in the country.

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Of Ghost Plants and Whooping Cranes

Naturalist Stephen Lyn Bales considers a dozen exceptional species in Ephemeral by Nature

In his collection of essays, Ephemeral by Nature, naturalist Stephen Lyn Bales is deeply philosophical about our burdened planet. He makes a convincing case for joy and curiosity despite—or perhaps because of—the transience of all living things.

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Haven in a Dark Time

The stories in Unbroken Circle highlight a range of contemporary Southern voices

With Unbroken Circle: Stories of Cultural Diversity in the South, editors Julia Watts and Larry Smith set out to collect essays and stories that reflect a more nuanced picture of Southern experience. Watts, along with several of the anthology’s contributing writers, will discuss Unbroken Circle at the East Tennessee History Center in Knoxville November 12 at 2 p.m.

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The Way and the Truth of Creative Living

A Chapter 16 writer takes Elizabeth Gilbert’s new writing guide, Big Magic, out for a spin

In her guide to creativity, Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert’s positivity is infectious not just because she’s funny, irreverent, and frank about her foibles, but because steely discipline and determination have been the mainstays of her creative life. The 2017 Nashville Public Library Literary Award honoree, Gilbert will give a free public lecture at Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville on November 11 at 10 a.m.

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Wandering and Wondering Why

Nashville’s Jamie Blaine returns with new adventures in late-night psychiatric counseling

“Here’s the score,” writes Nashville author Jamie Blaine in his new memoir, Mercy Never Sleeps. “My social circle consists of junkies and schizophrenics, inmates, suicidal housewives, cops and ER docs, and convenience store clerks on graveyard shift. Am I lost? Or found?”

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Scottish Kings and Millenial Minstrelsy

Ayanna Thompson returns to Memphis to discuss Shakespeare and race

Shakespeare’s “Scottish play” has played an important role in America’s cultural confrontation with racial issues, according to Weyward Macbeth, a collection of essays that survey the play’s complex intersection with the color line. Ayanna Thompson, co-editor of the book, will speak on “Shakespeare, Race, and Performance: What We Still Don’t Know” in Hardie Auditorium at Rhodes College in Memphis on November 2 at 7 p.m.

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