Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

“Ballad”

Book Excerpt: The Girl Singer

Marianne Worthington is a poet, editor, and cofounder of Still: The Journal. Her work has appeared in Oxford American, CALYX, Grist, and other outlets. She is coeditor, with Silas House, of Piano in a Sycamore: Writing Lessons from the Appalachian Writers’ Workshop. She grew up in Knoxville and currently lives in southeastern Kentucky.

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“The Holes I Have”

Book Excerpt: Sinew: 10 Years of Poetry in the Brew

Henry L. Jones is a Black poet, artist, playwright, performance artist, and activist. His poetry has appeared in The Willow Review, The Vanderbilt Review, Chicago Quarterly Review, and elsewhere. His second poetry collection, Black Skillet Blues: Poetry without Cornbread (Beatlick Press) is due in late 2021. A Fisk University graduate and the inaugural poet laureate of Hendersonville, Jones is an editor of Sinew: 10 Years of Poetry in the Brew, an anthology of work from the long-running open-mic reading series based in Nashville.

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Where No M.E. Has Gone Before

Cornwell’s Scarpetta conducts an autopsy in space

In Patricia Cornwell’s Autopsy, Dr. Kay Scarpetta must determine whether a pair of astronauts were killed by possible space debris that ripped through their satellite or by a surviving astronaut. To do so, she must remotely navigate a rescue team through a pair of autopsies in space. Zoom anyone?

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Storytellers with Loud Guitars

Capturing the Drive-By Truckers on the page

Music journalist Stephen Deusner’s Where the Devil Don’t Stay: Traveling the South with the Drive-By Truckers chronicles an enduring band’s unlikely rise and wild ride.

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Made from Angels and Dirt

Becca Stevens on trauma, resilience, and divine love

In Practically Divine, social entrepreneur and Episcopal priest Becca Stevens explores how the wisdom of women opens a place for love to grow even in the aftermath of trauma.

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Just the Way We Were

Remembering a friend, 30 years later

One of my friends looks exactly as he did 30 years ago: skinny, black shaggy hair, beige corduroy pants, untied Hush Puppies, a wrinkled dress shirt, and a loosely knotted knit tie. He is still 19 years old. That is when he died.

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