Editor’s Notes

The 2026 season of the TN Writers | TN Stories series will kick off at the Tennessee State Museum on March 7 with Mary Ellen Pethel and Don Cusic discussing their book Howdy! The Minnie Pearl Story, winner of the 2025 Tennessee History Book Award. (Look for a review of the book at Chapter 16 next week.) The series will run through the fall, with scheduled authors to…

Chapter 16’s founding editor, Margaret Renkl, is well known for her essays and New York Times columns about the natural world, with a particular focus on the under-appreciated wonders to be found in her own back yard. She has collaborated with her brother, artist Billy Renkl, on several books, and they’ve teamed up again to create their first book for children.…

Reverend James Lawson Jr. was not the most visible figure in the Civil Rights Movement, but he was a major influence on its commitment to nonviolence and played a critical role in many key events, including the Nashville sit-ins and the 1968 Memphis sanitation strike. Before he died in 2024, Lawson collaborated with writer Emily Yellin on his…

Black History Month began in February 1926 when historian Carter G. Woodson launched a movement to promote knowledge of Black history and achievement. What started as a one-week observance has become a month each year devoted to exploring and raising awareness of Black history. As the tradition reaches its 100th anniversary, Jarvis R. Givens surveys its origins and meaning in I’ll Make…

The 2026 Tremont Writers Conference in Townsend, Tennessee, is scheduled for October 21-25, and the faculty lineup this year includes Ron Rash, Kelli Jo Ford, Crystal Wilkinson, and Linda Parsons. Applications are open through May 15.  Blair, a nonprofit press based in North Carolina, recently announced that it would be reviving the New Stories from the South series, formerly published by Algonquin. They’re accepting short story nominations from…

The dates for the 2026 Southern Festival of Books have been announced. Make plans to be at the Bicentennial Mall, Tennessee State Museum, and Tennessee State Library and Archives in Nashville on October 17 & 18 for this beloved literary gathering. Author submissions are open through May 31. The initial lineup will be announced this summer, and you can be sure to hear…