Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Yurina Yoshikawa

We, the Swimmers

Julie Otsuka’s perspective-bending novel should be our call to action

The Swimmers, the third novel from award-winning author Julie Otsuka, uses a collective point of view to offer readers an exercise in radical empathy.

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Outwardly Fine, Inwardly Lost

Katie Kitamura’s international novel hits close to home

Katie Kitamura’s novel Intimacies takes us inside the mind of a multilingual narrator who leaves much unsaid. Kitamura will appear at Sewanee: The University of the South on August 30.

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Singin’ in the Rain

It’s not COVID; my throat is sore from singing all day

I come from the country that invented karaoke. I still remember going to my first karaoke when I was in first grade, with my two friends from school and all of our moms. We went to eat ramen afterwards. It was a perfect day.

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Grasshopper

First-prize winner in the Tennessee True Stories Essay Contest

James was the only person I’d talked to in the first week of moving to Nashville, outside of my husband and the local coffee shop guy. We would be spending many hours together, just the two of us in this little car. I wanted him to like me.

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