Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Maria Browning

A Vast Cacophony of Contradictions

Photographer Jack Spencer seeks the soul of a country

Nashville-based photographer Jack Spencer describes America as “a vast cacophony of contradictions,” but his stunning collection, This Land: An American Portrait, transcends the dissonance. Spencer will sign and discuss This Land at the David Lusk Gallery in Nashville on March 18 from 4 to 7 p.m.

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The People’s Job

Barry Friedman argues for public control of law enforcement in Unwarranted

In Unwarranted: Policing Without Permission, former Vanderbilt Law professor Barry Friedman takes a sobering look at the practices of modern law enforcement. He will discuss Unwarranted at Parnassus Books in Nashville on March 12 at 2 p.m.

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Taking Notes on the Spiritual Landscape

Poet Mark Jarman stalks elusive truths in The Heronry

Mark Jarman’s eleventh poetry collection, The Heronry, contains his central themes of spirituality and nature, his characteristic fondness for abiding in the mystery of ordinary experience, and his quietly fierce moral sense, all conveyed in language that is at once simple and cerebral. Jarman will discuss The Heronry in Buttrick Hall Room 102 on the campus of Vanderbilt University in Nashville on February 23 at 7 p.m.

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Wandering, Escaping, Arriving

Sybil Baker considers many kinds of travel in Immigration Essays

Travel can be a luxury, a diversion, an obsession, a necessity, or a means of survival. In Sybil Baker’s Immigration Essays, it’s all those things, as well as a kind of meditation on how to be in the world. Baker will discuss Immigration Essays at Starline Books in Chattanooga on February 15 at 7 p.m.

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The Dysfunctional Village

In Perfect Little World, Kevin Wilson depicts an experiment in communal parenting

In Kevin Wilson’s Perfect Little World, a child psychologist’s Infinite Family Project brings ten newborns and their parents to a compound outside Nashville, where they will live and grow together, their every need met. Wilson will discuss his second novel at Bounty on Broad in Memphis on January 24 at 6 p.m., and at Parnassus Books in Nashville on January 26 at 6:30 p.m.

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