Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Politics for Christians

Former governor Bill Haslam discusses the role of faith in government

Former Tennessee governor Bill Haslam does a deep dive into the two subjects not fit for polite conversation in Faithful Presence: The Promise and the Peril of Faith in the Public Square. Haslam, also the former mayor of Knoxville, outlines a way of approaching the role of religious faith in the hardball arena of politics. He will appear at the online 2021 Southern Festival of Books.

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“One Thing I Have Learned”

Book Excerpt: Edge of the Echo

KB Ballentine’s seventh collection, Edge of the Echo, launched in May 2021 with Iris Press. Earlier books include The Light Tears Loose; Almost Everything, Almost Nothing; and Gathering Stones. Her work also appears in anthologies including Pandemic Evolution (2021). She lives in Chattanooga.

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Spanks for the Memories

Stephen K. Stein discusses the BDSM movement in modern America

In Sadomasochism and the BDSM Community in the United States, University of Memphis historian Stephen K. Stein explains how a sexual community organized itself and found wider acceptance.

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Bad Influencers

Ace Atkins’ Mississippi sheriff chases a teenage TikTok sensation across the South

Cigar-smoking Sheriff Quinn Colson tracks Tibbehah County teens wanted for murder through Memphis, Hot Springs, and New Orleans in The Heathens, the 11th novel in the Mississippi crime series by Ace Atkins.

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Workshop Dispatches

Sewanee writers share thoughts on craft

The essays in As We Were Saying: Sewanee Writers on Writing illustrate a multigenerational love for the art of storytelling. Editors Wyatt Prunty, Megan Roberts, and Adam Latham gather a diverse group of Sewanee Writers’ Conference speakers and workshop leaders to share their wisdom on the power of language.

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Deep Loss and Deep Joy

Jeff Zentner’s fourth novel explores risking the life you know for the life you want

In Jeff Zentner’s In the Wild Light, best friends face a dilemma: Will they stay in their hometown forever, hanging on to the semblance of stability they’ve found? Or will they risk it all for a different life? Zentner will discuss In the Wild Light at Parnassus Books in Nashville on August 10.

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