Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Joy Ramirez

Difficult Choices, Few Options

Sadeqa Johnson’s The House of Eve surveys the possibilities for two young Black women in the 1950s

Sadeqa Johnson’s fifth novel, The House of Eve, is a story of young Black women in the pre-Roe era. Johnson will appear at the 2023 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville on October 21-22.

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Turning Hard Lessons into Action

Keeda Haynes understands the fight against injustice

In Bending the Arc: My Journey from Prison to Politics, Keeda Haynes describes her own experience of the justice system she’s trying to reform.

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Mixing Registers

Caki Wilkinson discusses her latest poetry collection, The Survival Expo

In The Survival Expo, poet Caki Wilkinson guides us through an exploration of what it means to survive our past without leaving it altogether, observing it from within but also with newfound perspective. Caki Wilkinson will discuss The Survival Expo at a virtual event hosted by Novel in Memphis on June 29.

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An Unspoken Language

Josephine Caminos Oría’s Sobremesa celebrates family and food

Sobremesa, the second book by Argentine-American author Josephine Caminos Oría, is a delicious paean to her roots and to the culture that informs her life’s work. Oría will discuss the book at a virtual event hosted by Novel in Memphis on May 6.

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Home Is a State of Mind

Simon Han’s debut novel considers what it means to live between two worlds

Simon Han’s appropriately titled debut novel, Nights When Nothing Happened, is a beautifully rendered meditation on what it means to belong — to a family, to a culture, to a particular place and time. Han will appear at a virtual event hosted by The Porch in Nashville on February 15.

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A Bold, Tender Voice

Make Me Rain delivers quintessential Nikki Giovanni

For more than five decades, Nikki Giovanni has written about what it means to be a Black woman in America, calling attention to the injustices suffered by her community but also to its joys and triumphs. In her new collection of poetry and prose, Make Me Rain, her unique voice, bold yet tender, is on display again with a new relevance.

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