Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Michael Ray Taylor

An Enlightened Message

In Nature’s Messenger, Patrick Dean follows an 18th-century naturalist of the American South

Nature’s Messenger: Mark Catesby and His Adventures in a New World, the second book from Sewanee-based writer Patrick Dean, relates the history of a little-known man and his greatest achievement. 

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No Laughing Matter?

Harrison Scott Key’s How to Stay Married is a tragicomic memoir of marital crisis

Harrison Scott Key’s new memoir, How to Stay Married, relates his wife’s infidelity, his own loss of faith, and the implosion of his marriage followed by its unlikely resurrection. It’s a hoot. Really.

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Call of the Wild

David George Haskell explores all things acoustic within the natural world

FROM THE CHAPTER 16 ARCHIVE: David George Haskell’s fourth book, Sounds Wild and Broken, was a finalist for the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in general nonfiction. Haskell will deliver the keynote address at the Clarksville Writers Conference on June 8. 

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Lights! Camera! Comic Books!

Tom Hanks delivers a sprawling, genre-bending tale

Academy Award-winning actor Tom Hanks has penned a stunning debut novel with a mouthful of a title: The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece. Hanks will discuss the book before a sold-out crowd at Montgomery Bell Academy on May 11.

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The Boy Beneath the Hero

Daniel Wallace, author of Big Fish, writes a heartbreaking (and aptly titled) memoir

Daniel Wallace, best known for magical Southern novels like Big Fish, tackles a difficult truth in his new memoir, This Isn’t Going to End Well. Wallace’s brother-in-law, William Nealy, a popular cartoonist and outdoor writer, committed suicide in 2001, and in seeking to understand that tragedy, Wallace has crafted a sublime mediation on family, art, and friendship. Wallace will appear at the ETSU Spring Literary Festival in Johnson City on April 12-13 and the SouthWord Literary Festival in Chattanooga on April 14-15.

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Rye Wit

Clay Risen talks about death, history, and the rebirth of America’s first spirit

Clay Risen’s American Rye presents a comprehensive guide to a uniquely American spirit. As with his previous books on bourbon and scotch, Risen explains the evolution and making of rye whiskey before offering reviews and tasting notes on 225 contemporary expressions of the spirit.

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