Joy Harjo’s Poet Warrior illuminates her journey with words
FROM THE CHAPTER 16 ARCHIVE: Blending poetry and prose, Joy Harjo’s second memoir, Poet Warrior, braids her story of becoming an accomplished poet and modern Native woman — always guided by her ancestors in the Muscogee (Creek) Nation — into the larger context of Native history.
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Rachel M. Hanson’s memoir recounts her flight from abuse
Rachel M. Hanson’s The End of Tennessee takes readers inside a teen girl’s decision to run away from an abusive home and her struggle to create a new life.
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Music critic Ann Powers shows us how Joni Mitchell made her own way
Ann Powers’ Traveling: On the Path of Joni Mitchell weaves research, reportage, and analysis to tell the iconic singer-songwriter’s story in a conversational way. Powers will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on June 12.
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Poet Danielle Chapman grapples with her Southern roots
In Holler: A Poet Among Patriots, Danielle Chapman grapples with the meaning of her Middle Tennessee ancestry and military forbears, including a Confederate second-great grandfather. Chapman will appear at Calvary Episcopal Church in Memphis on March 17, Rhodes College on March 18, and Middle Tennessee State University on March 19.
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How Dolly Parton saved one woman’s life
FROM THE CHAPTER 16 ARCHIVE: In I’ve Had to Think Up a Way to Survive: On Trauma, Persistence, and Dolly Parton, New York poet Lynn Melnick blends her personal story with cultural critique to explore Dolly Parton and her work. Most of all, she credits Parton with helping her turn her life around. Melnick will appear at the 2023 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville on October 21-22.
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Drew Gilpin Faust recalls growing up in the 1950s and ‘60s
In Necessary Trouble: Growing Up at Midcentury, former Harvard University president Drew Gilpin Faust recalls her privileged Virginia childhood in the 1950s and her growing involvement in the Civil Rights Movement. Faust will appear at the 2023 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville on October 21-22.
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