Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

What We’ll Miss and What We’ll Share

The meaning of the Southern Festival of Books in a season of loss

…Often when we say, “I can’t wait to read this,” what we mean is that we can’t wait to be alone — for the world to fall away and be…

Baking Can Save You

Lisa Donovan’s memoir is never short of passion

“In the morning, there is a quiet light and an almost ethereal hum in a restaurant kitchen,” says Nashville writer Lisa Donovan in her new book, Our Lady of Perpetual

Same War, Same General

Connor Towne O’Neill grapples with America’s legacy of white supremacy

In 2015, journalist Connor Towne O’Neill was on a reporting trip to Selma, Alabama, when he stumbled across some Lost Cause enthusiasts preparing to erect a bust of Nathan Bedford…

Surviving the Curse of “Nowville”

Greetings from New Nashville considers the city’s transformation and its future

…to Nashville, before they tear it down.” Is the end of cool Nashville inevitable? Can the inexorable wheels of capitalism be slowed, if not stopped? Haruch: I often think of…

Another Way to Be

Michael Ian Black makes the case for a new masculinity in A Better Man

…of male struggles. In the book, I talk about how women understand men better than men understand women because men have always been the dominant societal figures. Now that’s changing,…

The Past Is Never Dead

A new memoir by Lawrence Wells pulls back the curtain on a Southern literary community

…literary success is no guarantee of local popularity. Shortly after his arrival in Oxford, Wells visits Varner’s Repair Shop to seek help for his broken typewriter. When he remarks that…

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