Features | Chapter 16

Breathing Another Country’s Air

Dinaw Mengestu’s The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears, the inaugural selection for Memphis Reads, reveals the complexity of the immigrant experience

By Maria Browning | October 30, 2014

October 30, 2014 Sepha Stephanos, the immigrant protagonist of Dinaw Mengestu’s The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears, is not the archetypal ambitious newcomer, striving for American success. He’s a sensitive, troubled man bewildered by life in a culture not his own. The novel is the inaugural selection for Memphis’s first city-wide read. On November 4, 2014, Mengestu will visit Memphis to discuss the book at the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library and Christian Brothers University. Both events are free and open to the public.

All Together Now

A Chapter 16 writer considers the collective spirit of the Southern Festival of Books

By Maria Browning | October 10, 2014

October 10, 2014 The Southern Festival of Books is big, varied, and one of the most inclusive cultural events around. Chapter 16’s Maria Browning considers the special pleasure of the festival’s collective spirit. The twenty-sixth annual Southern Festival of Books will take place in Nashville October 10-12, 2014, at Legislative Plaza and the Nashville Public Library. All festival events are free and open to the public.

An Elegant Rebellion Against the Newsstand

Home & Hill, a new quarterly, tells Tennessee’s story in its own inimitable way

By Susannah Felts | June 26, 2014

June 26, 2014 Ad-free and distinctive in design, Home & Hill: A Quarterly Magazine in the Tennessee Tradition aims to showcase the character of the state, from its magnificent natural settings to its historic monuments and hidden landmarks, to its makers and purveyors and artists and chefs.

Cultivating Enchantment

The Sigourney Cheek Literary Garden in Nashville offers a picturesque setting for a reading series

By Emily Choate | June 9, 2014

June 9, 2014 Each summer Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art offers a colorful addition to Nashville’s literary landscape with a reading series called Annotations. Local authors discuss their work surrounded by the stunning atmosphere of the Sigourney Cheek Literary Garden. Beginning on June 13, 2014, with novelist Victoria Schwab, the events will take place at 6:30 p.m. on the second Friday of each month during the summer.

Taking It to the Kids

Glencliff Elementary kindergartners review Knuckleball Ned, the new picture book by MLB pitcher R.A. Dickey

By Margaret Renkl | May 30, 2014

May 30, 2014 Knuckleball Ned, the new picture book for young children by Nashville native R.A. Dickey, celebrates diversity and the power of friendship. Chapter 16 invited the kindergartners of Glencliff Elementary, where Dickey attended kindergarten himself, to review the story of how Ned, teased for being different, ultimately saves the day—with a little help from his friends.

Subtle but Powerful

Finding the heart of a poem at the 2014 Tennessee Poetry Out Loud state championship

By Karen Parr-Moody | April 28, 2014

April 28, 2014 Anita Norman, a junior at Arlington High School near Memphis, walked away the winner of this year’s state Poetry Out Loud competition after reciting “Early Affection” by George Moses Horton. “I never want to overpower the words,” she said. Norman will represent Tennessee in the national Poetry Out Loud semi-finals, which will be held in Washington, D.C., on April 29, 2014.

Tias and Primas: On Knowing and Loving the Women Who Raise Us

By Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez, illustrated by Josie Del Castillo
Seal Press
304 pages
$30

“Within these pages, I found my abuela, my tías and my primas — laughing, crying, and nodding alongside me. This book is a gift of understanding, and loving one’s family, even when our families are complicated and painful. It’s a beautiful reminder of the power of storytelling and the profound connection of kinship.”

~ Paola Mendoza, author, organizer and filmmaker