Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Sean Kinch

The Uncanny Valley

Rebecca Makkai’s I Have Some Questions for You alternates between the #MeToo present and a 1990s mystery

In Rebecca Makkai’s I Have Some Questions for You, a popular LA podcaster returns to her New England boarding school to investigate a murder that still haunts the campus. Makkai will discuss her work at Vanderbilt University in Nashville on April 18.

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Living for Style

Marjorie Garber studies Shakespeare’s influence on the Bloomsbury group of writers

Marjorie Garber’s Shakespeare in Bloomsbury surveys the variety of ways English modernists used the Bard to inspire their own work. Garber will appear at Novel in Memphis on April 11. For a complete list of Garber’s events during her April 10–12 visit to Memphis, please see the Shakespeare at Rhodes website: www.rhodes.edu/shakespeare

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How to Be a Person

In Come and Get It, Kiley Reid’s college characters tackle life’s big questions

In Kiley Reid’s Come and Get It, a visiting writing professor at the University of Arkansas entangles herself in the tumultuous lives of college students. Reid will discuss her novel at Parnassus Books in Nashville on February 3.

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Trepidation Is Big Business

Jonathan Metzl wants to reframe the gun debate

In What We’ve Become, Vanderbilt professor Jonathan Metzl demonstrates why gun reform has failed and offers new strategies for changing the debate. Metzl will launch What We’ve Become at the Hermitage Hotel in Nashville on January 31.

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The Heaven Con

In Eric Schlich’s new novel, a preacher’s son comes clean about his near-death experience

In Eric Schlich’s new novel, Eli Harpo’s Adventure to the Afterlife, the son of a Bible-belt minister begins to doubt his own story about visiting heaven. Schlich will discuss Eli Harpo’s Adventure to the Afterlife at Novel in Memphis on January 16.

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A Feeling Not Unlike Happiness

Claire Keegan’s stories chart the good and bad of romantic relationships

In Claire Keegan’s new story collection So Late in the Day, women must learn to navigate unpredictable eruptions of the male ego. Keegan will appear at two ticketed events in Nashville, at Parnassus Books on October 28 and Montgomery Bell Academy on October 30.

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