Editor’s Notes

Fall weather has arrived at last, and that means it’s finally time to settle in with a good book on a chilly evening. No doubt all the folks who were able to make it to the Southern Festival of Books over the weekend now have a tall TBR pile to get them through the long…

Festival week is here at last, and we’ve got reviews of new books by three festival authors today.  In her review of Silas House’s latest novel, The Tulip Poplars, Tina Chambers notes that this chronicle of friendship that endures over decades is marked by “beautifully lyrical passages,” even as it takes on issues of race…

We’ve got reviews of two titles by Southern Festival of Books authors this week, each focused on a gifted woman — one fictional, one real. We also take a look at a hefty new biography of a Tennessee literary heavyweight. (If you’re prepping for the festival, be sure to check out all Chapter 16’s festival coverage…

A reminder for readers attending the Southern Festival of Books: There are tickets available for Authors in the Round, festival volunteers are needed, and there’s still time to register for the pre-festival writing workshops. The party is just three weeks away! Ayad Akhtar will be at the festival to discuss his new novel, The Radiance.…

This year’s Tennessee Book Award winners have been announced! The award for fiction goes to the novel Run for the Hills by Sewanee writer Kevin Wilson. This Changes Everything: A Surprisingly Funny Story About Race, Cancer, Faith, and Other Things We Don’t Talk About by Nashville actor, musician, comedian, and activist Tyler Merritt receives the…

This year’s Southern Festival of Books is a little over a month away, and the schedule of sessions has been announced. Barbara Kingsolver and Yiyun Li will headline pre-festival events on October 11 and October 15, respectively, and the gathering in downtown Nashville gets underway on Saturday, October 17, with authors including Emily Yellin, Ann Patchett, David Haskell, Ayad Akhtar, and Claudia Rankine. The lineup on Sunday,…