Editor's Note
The Mountain Heritage Literary Festival is coming up May 30-31, with featured authors including Frank X Walker and Denton Loving. The Clarksville Writers Conference will take place June 4-6. Margaret Renkl and Billy Renkl will be the keynote speakers for the conference, and featured authors include Amy Wright, Joy Jordan-Lake, and Meredith Lyons. If you’ve dreamed of a Smoky Mountain writing retreat, take note that the Tremont Writers Conference is still taking applications through May 15.
This week at Chapter 16, we’re featuring coverage of two eagerly anticipated novels: Tina Chambers reviews Kevin Wilson’s latest story of quirky family dysfunction, Run for the Hills; and Emily Choate looks at Ocean Vuong’s tale of an unlikely friendship, The Emperor of Gladness. We’ve also got a poem from Abby N. Lewis’ Aquakineticist, a collection centered on the experiences of girlhood and young womanhood.
News Roundup
- Percival Everett’s novel James received the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
- Frank X Walker’s Load in Nine Times received the 2025 PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry Collection.
- Gaylord Brewer was interviewed for Heartwood.
- An essay by Tiana Clark was published by The New York Times.
- Joy Harjo was interviewed for NPR’s All Things Considered.
