Q & A | Chapter 16

Praise Song and Elegy

Margaret Renkl on beauty, climate change, and her literary devotional, The Comfort of Crows

By Sara Beth West | October 2, 2023

Essayist and New York Times columnist Margaret Renkl brings her keen eye and tender observations to her Nashville backyard in The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year. Renkl will appear in Nashville at David Lusk Gallery on October 14, the 2023 Southern Festival of Books on October 21-22, and Harpeth Hall School on October 24; at The Book & Cover in Chattanooga on November 6; St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral in Knoxville on November 13; and Novel in Memphis on December 4.

A Revolution on the Airwaves

Night Train to Nashville tells the story of two men behind WLAC’s groundbreaking R&B broadcasts

By Jacqueline Zeisloft | September 27, 2023

Paula Blackman’s Night Train to Nashville fuses family history with music history to chronicle a radio revolution in the Jim Crow South. Blackman will appear at the 2023 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville on October 21-22.

What is “the South”?

Fitzhugh Brundage reflects on an ambitious undertaking: A New History of the American South

By Aram Goudsouzian | September 14, 2023

A New History of the American South collects interpretations of Southern history into a coherent, fascinating narrative. Its editor, Fitzhugh Brundage, will discuss the book at the 2023 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville on October 21-22.

Learning from the Lady Lovers

Historian Cookie Woolner unearths communities of Black queer women in the 1920s and ‘30s

By Aram Goudsouzian | September 7, 2023

In The Famous Lady Lovers, Cookie Woolner excavates the communities built by Black queer women in the interwar era. Woolner will discuss the book at Novel in Memphis on September 12.

Privilege, Pageantry, and PR

Carrie Tipton traces the complex origins of college fight songs

By Maria Browning | September 6, 2023

In From Dixie to Rocky Top, musicologist Carrie Tipton reveals the surprisingly complex history behind SEC football fight songs. Tipton will discuss the book with former sportscaster Rudy Kalis at the Tennessee State Museum in Nashville on September 9.

Rights and Revolutions

Historian Timothy S. Huebner discusses how a “culture of constitutionalism” shaped the Civil War era

By Aram Goudsouzian | August 18, 2023

FROM THE CHAPTER 16 ARCHIVE: In Liberty and Union, Rhodes College professor Timothy S. Huebner brings together an enormous body of scholarship on the secession crisis, Civil War, and Reconstruction, compelling us to reconsider what we think we know about the era.

Camilla and the Caterpillars

By Frances Figart, illustrated by Matt Brass
Smokies Life
68 pages
$14.95

A young girl’s encounter with an extraordinary caterpillar in the Great Smoky Mountains leads her and her family on a quest to plant a national park right in their own backyard.

This environmentally themed chapter book for ages 6 through 11 introduces young readers to important ecological concepts including habitat loss and the interdependence of native species and offers a compelling grassroots solution through native-plant gardening that invites anyone to take part in addressing the growing biodiversity crisis.

~the publisher