Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Remembering Robert Johnson

Brother Robert provides a human perspective on the man who changed American music

Assisted by journalist and historian Preston Lauterbach, 94-year-old Annye C. Anderson describes growing up in Memphis with her stepbrother, Robert Johnson. This detail-rich oral history recounts the famous bluesman from his earliest childhood to his death at 27, along with the long legal battle for his music that followed.

Read more

Be Brave or Be Crazy

Nashville writer and musician Rob Rufus examines the anger and fear of American youth in 1968

In The Vinyl Underground, a young adult novel by Nashville writer and musician Rob Rufus, 17-year-old Ronnie Bingham is reeling from the death of his beloved older brother in Vietnam and terrified of following in his footsteps.  

Read more

Democracy’s Double-Edged Sword

Kellie Carter Jackson explains how black abolitionists employed the political language of violence

In Force and Freedom, historian Kellie Carter Jackson places black abolitionists at the center of the coming of the Civil War. 

Read more

People of the Pandemic

Remembering the first days of the coronavirus crisis

Nothing illuminates the beauty of the average day quite so brilliantly as the fear that the average day has vanished indefinitely — maybe for always.

Read more

Layers

When love isn’t love

Getting to know a person is like digging through the core of the Earth. Sometimes you find interesting and complex layers; other times, you hit an empty cavity that’s waiting to devour you whole.

Read more

A Multidimensional Narrative

Book Excerpt: Voyage of the Adventure

Voyage of the Adventure, a collection of photographs by John Guider documenting his 2016 journey retracing the historic route of the Donelson party, will be published in September 2020. John Guider is an Emmy Award–winning photographer and author based in Nashville.

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