Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Some Words to the Close and Holy Darkness

A writer explores her enduring ties to a seasonal classic by Dylan Thomas

FROM THE CHAPTER 16 ARCHIVE: Every year, when the stresses of the holiday season begin whipping up into frenzy, I weather them by imagining that I’m roaming around the world described in the Dylan Thomas story “A Child’s Christmas in Wales”: the magic of winter, the mysteries surrounding older family members, and the odd flexes of time when normal schedules are suspended.

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The Life of Riley

Lessons in love and loss from a soul with four legs

The rough-looking man who first plucked me from a basket would later say those who believe dogs have no soul only say that because they lack one of their own. I think maybe I taught him that.

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This Old House

For 25 years she held our family

I’ve come to realize that we were but fleeting guests, though the children’s hurried footsteps grooved a worn path down the wooden stairs.

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In Collapse There Is Light

Three new collections illuminate times of transformation

In these exciting new collections, poets Erin Hoover, L.S. McKee, and Shuly Xóchitl Cawood locate moments of insight, challenge, and transformative power in even the darkest aspects of contemporary life.

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The Mark Left Behind

Ariel Lawhon’s The Frozen River enters the mind of a remarkable 18th-century woman

In her latest novel, The Frozen River, Ariel Lawhon depicts the inner world of Martha Ballard, a real 18th-century American midwife and healer who kept a diary of her extraordinary life. Lawhon will discuss the book at Parnassus Books in Nashville on December 5.

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A Finely Drawn Tragedy

Anna Olswanger’s A Visit to Moscow depicts a modern exodus

FROM THE CHAPTER 16 ARCHIVE: In 1965, an American rabbi investigating persecution of Jews in the former Soviet Union escaped KGB handlers to make a remarkable discovery, as told in A Visit to Moscow, a graphic history by Memphis native Anna Olswanger.

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