Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

A Place Called Vulnerable

Karen Salyer McElmurray retraces her life’s journey in I Could Name God in Twelve Ways

Award-winning writer Karen Salyer McElmurray’s collection of essays, I Could Name God in Twelve Ways, is many things at once: memoir, travelogue, and prayer. Taking inspiration from each of these…

Between Two Worlds

In Evil Eye, a young woman navigates cultural crossroads in search of herself

Born in Brooklyn to Palestinian immigrants and now living in a small town in North Carolina, Yara is a young mother and art teacher navigating a web of cultural crossroads….

Southern Gothic Time Warp

Kristine Potter’s photography goes deep

Tennessee-based photographer Kristine Potter’s widely celebrated body of work explores the landscape of the American South, masculine archetypes, and mythologies of the past. With her latest book, Dark Waters, she…

Like a Tree Wrapped in Barbed Wire

A woman reckons with the past in Polly Stewart’s The Good Ones

Polly Stewart’s The Good Ones is a Southern Gothic page-turner that’s as thoughtful as it is suspenseful. The novel centers on 36-year-old Nicola Bennett who, upon her mother’s death, returns…

Traditions Are Elastic

Making Our Future offers visionary folklore of Appalachia

In her book Making Our Future: Visionary Folklore and Everyday Culture in Appalachia, Emily Hilliard presents what she calls “visionary folklore.” Her work is grounded in the present and looks…

A Symphony of Listeners

Many voices harmonize in Paper Concert

In theatre, the phrase “in the round” refers to a stage placed with an audience on at least three of its sides; in Nashville, it is often used in reference…

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