Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Margaret Renkl

The Homeplace on the Plaza

A writer measures her life by October weekends at the Southern Festival of Books

The Southern Festival of Books is the place I came from and the place I return to, and it is the place where my literary forebears live on through the miraculous immortality of books.

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A Faith that Left Room for Doubt

Rachel Held Evans, author of four books on progressive Christianity, has died at 37

Dayton, Tenn., author Rachel Held Evans, whose books challenged the evangelical teachings of her childhood and urged conservative Christians to make their churches more compassionate and more inclusive, died on Saturday after a short illness.

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Saved by a Song

Mary Gauthier talks with Chapter 16 about becoming your own witness

While touring to support Rifles and Rosary Beads, her new album co-written with American veterans, Nashville songwriter Mary Gauthier signed a book deal with St. Martin’s Press to tell her own story of trauma and recovery.

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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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Wordsworth’s Heir

Billy Collins, former poet laureate, talks with Chapter 16 about why we’re all born for poetry—and how school kills it for kids

Billy Collins is a frequent guest on National Public Radio shows like A Prairie Home Companion and Fresh Air, and his readings pack even halls that seat two thousand people or more. Collins will read from his new collection, The Rain in Portugal, at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music on October 26 at 6:15 p.m.

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Kaleidoscopic

Coming in 2018 from Vanderbilt University Press: People Only Die of Love in Movies: Film Writing by Jim Ridley

When Jim Ridley died last year at age fifty, he left a legacy of brilliant writing about movies, literature, music, art, and the vibrant life of a growing city. Celebrating that achievement, Vanderbilt University Press has just announced that it will publish an anthology of the late Nashville Scene editor’s most memorable film reviews. Today Chapter 16 talks with Steve Haruch, editor of People Only Die of Love in Movies: Film Writing by Jim Ridley.

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