Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

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.

Read more

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.

Read more

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.

Read more

Looking Back on 50 Years of Tennessee Books

50 Books / HT50, Part 4: 1994-1998

Tennessee was connected to some exceptional literary achievements during the second half of the 1990s, including a Pulitzer Prize for poetry awarded to a native son and a legendary journalist’s acclaimed book about the extraordinary young civil rights activists who worked to end segregation in Nashville.

Read more

The Aroma of Life

Theresa Levitt’s Elixir chronicles an early collaboration between perfumers and chemists

In Elixir, historian Theresa Levitt shows how perfumers and chemists in revolutionary and post-revolutionary France set out to unveil the mystery of life. Levitt will discuss the book at Novel in Memphis on December 5.

Read more

Piracy and Power

Angela Sutton recounts a pivotal battle in the history of the Atlantic slave trade

Angela Sutton’s Pirates of the Slave Trade weaves together biographies of fascinating figures, tales of maritime warfare, and analyses of politics and power in Europe and West Africa — with implications for the system of slavery that shaped the United States.

Read more
TAKE THE SHORT READER SURVEY! CHAPTER 16 SURVEYOR SURVEYING