Editor's Note
Welcome to our first newsletter of 2026. Poet W.S. Merwin wrote about bringing to a new year “our knowledge such as it is / and our hopes such as they are / invisible before us / untouched and still possible.” His words are a reminder that knowledge and hope are essential, and here at Chapter 16, we think the highest purpose of books is to nurture both. Books are, at their best, tools of human understanding and communion. May the new year bring our readers an abundance of books to do that work. (And if you’re looking for a multitude of ways to survive and thrive in 2026, consider Silas House’s “New Year Prayer.”)
Today at the site, Emily Choate reviews three recent poetry collections with an emphasis on place: Twin Lead Lines by Lou Turner, Nameless as the Minnows by Connie Jordan Green, and Stone Nest by Richard Collins. In his review of The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits, Sean Kinch writes that the book is “a novel of earned wisdom.” And Sarah Norris describes Chris McClain Johnson’s novel Three Guesses as a story of strangers who create a lifelong friendship through letters.
News Roundup
- Sundress Publications is accepting prose manuscripts in all genres through February 28.
- An essay by Meg Sniderman appeared in Cutleaf.
- Linda Parsons’ Valediction was reviewed by Jeff Hardin in As the Crow Flies and her poem was published in Amethyst Review.
- Applications for the 2026 Sewanee Writers’ Conference will open on January 15.
