Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Sara Beth West

Loving the World More Fully

Margaret Renkl wants us to pay attention and stay hopeful

Leaf, Cloud, Crow, a companion to Margaret Renkl’s 2023 book The Comfort of Crows, is a weekly journal organized by season, encouraging readers to look closely at the plants and creatures that surround them, “to understand them more intimately, and to love them more fully.” Margaret Renkl will appear at the 2024 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, October 26-27.

Read more

Protecting What We Love

This Is How a Robin Drinks makes the case for urban nature

In This Is How a Robin Drinks, Joanna Brichetto makes the case that urban landscapes can be perfect places to fall in love with the wonders of nature. Brichetto will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on September 23 and the 2024 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville on October 26-27.

Read more

Among the Lost

Women struggle against constraints in Liz Moore’s The God of the Woods

A missing 13-year-old girl at an Adirondack summer camp spurs an exploration of family dysfunction in Liz Moore’s The God of the Woods. Moore will appear at the 2024 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, October 26-27.

Read more

Not a Place to Visit

Reflections on You Are Here, a collection of contemporary nature poetry

For You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World, U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón commissioned 50 American poets to reflect on their unique place in the world, wherever they are and however they see it. Sara Beth West reflects on her journey with the collection.

Read more

The Unmatched Strength of Womanhood

Jen Fawkes spins a fiercely feminist tale centered in 19th-century Nashville

Jen Fawkes’ latest novel, Daughters of Chaos, finds its center in Civil War-era Nashville and the decision to protect Union soldiers against syphilis by removing all prostitutes from the city. Fawkes will appear at the 2024 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, October 26-27.

Read more

Motherless Child

Monica Brashears’ debut novel delivers a strange, haunting world

FROM THE CHAPTER 16 ARCHIVE: With its reverberations of pain and trauma, Monica Brashears’ debut novel House of Cotton is not for the faint of heart; however, it is lush, gorgeous evidence of a new and decisive talent. 

Read more
TAKE THE SHORT READER SURVEY! CHAPTER 16 SURVEYOR SURVEYING