Chapter 16

Toward What? Away From What?

A poet alone in Costa Rica considers the nature of art—and loneliness

By Charlotte Pence | July 8, 2021

From the Chapter 16 archive: This type of travel is not meant to soothe; it’s not like a seven-day cruise where the aim is to make sure you never feel lost, unsure, or in want. This travel is about want. About loneliness. About insecurity. About all those things that go into the poems that stay with you, the ones that risk and surprise, that ache to be written, and that talk back to you on the page.

When to Hold on and When to Let Go

Rita Sims Quillen’s sixth poetry collection focuses on the restorative power of being present

By Charlotte Pence | October 26, 2020

Some Notes You Hold by Rita Sims Quillen is an engaging collection about surviving life’s hardships. While these poems do not shy from the ravages of loss, they also acknowledge all the ways joy is patiently waiting for us, be it through prayer, meditation, song, or communing with nature. Quillen will appear at a virtual event hosted by Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on November 18.

“Orderly”

Book Excerpt: Code

By Charlotte Pence | June 30, 2020

Charlotte Pence’s first book of poems, Many Small Fires (Black Lawrence Press, 2015), received an INDIEFAB Book of the Year Award from Foreword Reviews. Her poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction have recently been published in Harvard Review, The Sewanee Review, The Southern Review, and Brevity. A graduate of Emerson College (M.F.A.) and the University of Tennessee (Ph.D.), she is now the director of the Stokes Center for Creative Writing at the University of South Alabama.

Peeking Under Someone Else’s Roof

Beth Ann Fennelly brings poetry to her new memoir in essays

By Charlotte Pence | October 19, 2018

Beth Ann Fennelly, the multi-talented author of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, has created, yet again, a book that is wholly original, engrossing, and poignant. Heating & Cooling is a series of fifty-two micro-essays that chronicle her life as a writer, mother, and wife. Fennelly will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on October 27.

An American Story

Inaugural poet Richard Blanco talks with Chapter 16 about his new memoir

By Charlotte Pence | March 13, 2017

Richard Blanco brings a poet’s keen eye for observation and a prose writer’s gift for plot to his new memoir, The Prince of los Cocuyos, which illustrates how cultural, sexual, and artistic sensibilities are “all developed—not independently of each other—but simultaneously.” Blanco will appear at Vanderbilt University in Nashville on March 15 at 7 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

The Forces that Bind Us

Robert Morgan’s new poetry collection, Dark Energy, fuses the lyric and the scientific

By Charlotte Pence | August 12, 2015

August 12, 2015 From the haze of the Blue Ridge Mountains to the glow of the Milky Way, Robert Morgan’s fifteenth collection of poetry, Dark Energy, illuminates both the invisible and observable forces that bind us, be they heritage or neutrinos, history or noble metals. Morgan, the New York Times-bestselling author of Gap Creek and other celebrated books of history and fiction, will appear at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 9-11, 2015. All festival events are free and open to the public.

Tias and Primas: On Knowing and Loving the Women Who Raise Us

By Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez, illustrated by Josie Del Castillo
Seal Press
304 pages
$30

“Within these pages, I found my abuela, my tías and my primas — laughing, crying, and nodding alongside me. This book is a gift of understanding, and loving one’s family, even when our families are complicated and painful. It’s a beautiful reminder of the power of storytelling and the profound connection of kinship.”

~ Paola Mendoza, author, organizer and filmmaker