Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

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…

An Unlikely Cast of Heroines

Women prevail in an inventive debut story collection

Gwen E. Kirby’s bold debut collection of stories connects an unlikely cast of heroines across time and space, each encountering her own series of obstacles in pursuit of survival, pleasure,…

Tennessee Stormwater

Andrew Siegrist rides the winding river of the human spirit in We Imagined It Was Rain

The winner of the 2020 C. Michael Curtis Short Story Book Prize, We Imagined It Was Rain is an immersive debut collection of loosely connected short stories from Tennessee native…

Noir Way Out

Willy Vlautin combines suspense and social commentary in The Night Always Comes

Willy Vlautin is concerned with America’s working poor. Whether you encounter his writing via his alt-country band Richmond Fontaine, his award-winning fiction, or the film The Motel Life (based on…

Unspoken Prayers

Ashleigh Bryant Phillips weaves a transcendent tapestry of stories in Sleepovers

…blood and proximity. Called “incantatory” by Lauren Groff, who judged it as the winner of the C. Michael Curtis Short Story Book Prize, Sleepovers is a transcendent tapestry of stories….