Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Not Quite a New Day

Three recent poetry collections seek form and language to reflect an uncertain world

In three recent poetry collections — Blas Falconer’s Rara Avis, Danielle Chapman’s Boxed Juice, and Todd Osborne’s Gatherer — our world’s inherent uncertainty takes center stage, fueling each poet’s inquiry into how our everyday lives (and our deeper internal longings) can survive the unknowable.

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Punching Hitler in the Mouth

Two smart teens protect their country and their family in war-torn England

“I am Elizabeth ‘Lizzie’ Novis. … I am the candidate most likely to violate the Official Secrets Act. And I will be convicted of treason when I do.” Lizzie is half of the talented brother/sister team at the center of The Bletchley Riddle, a World War II novel for middle-grade readers by an equally talented team: award-winning writers Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin.

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Do-It-Yourself Spirit

Joe Nolan’s Nowville chronicles Nashville’s contemporary art renaissance

In Nowville, Joe Nolan tells the story of Nashville’s contemporary art renaissance with a lively oral history featuring artists, gallerists, and curators.

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Straight on ‘til Morning

The River Will Be a Part of Us chronicles a remarkable youthful adventure

In the summer of 1981, a group of young people from the U.S. and Germany launched a homemade raft on the Missouri River near Kansas City, determined to float all the way to New Orleans. Nashvillian Justus Wayne Thomas documented the trip with his camera, and his striking photographs of the crew and the landscape they journeyed through are collected in The River Wil Be a Part of Us.

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On the Brink

Amina Gautier’s stories capture women in moments of metamorphosis

In The Best That You Can Do, a new story collection, Amina Gautier depicts women in the process of growing up and moving on. Gautier, a professor at the University of Miami, is a former fellow at the Sewanee Writers’ Conference.

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Cracks in the Foundation

Phyllis Gobbell’s Prodigal depicts the drama of a fractured family

Phyllis Gobbell’s novel Prodigal explores the impact of a son’s return to his family in the wake of his grandmother’s sudden death. Phyllis Gobbell will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on November 21.

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