Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Hope Springs Eternal

Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Jon Meacham examines the last words of Jesus

In The Hope of Glory: Reflections on the Last Words of Jesus from the Cross, historian Jon Meacham offers a series of devotional essays inspired by his own faith.

Read more

Paths of Resistance

Multimedia artist Jessica Ingram explores the South’s racist history in Road Through Midnight

Multimedia artist Jessica Ingram, who grew up in Nashville, commemorates acts of resistance to segregation and white supremacist terror in Road Through Midnight. The book includes her photographs of sites scarred by racial violence, as well as interviews with victims’ families and journalists who covered the crimes.

Read more

Hapless Hero

Wesley Browne spins a riveting tale in his debut novel, Hillbilly Hustle

When we first meet Knox Thompson, the protagonist in Wesley Browne’s astounding debut novel Hillbilly Hustle, he’s a 40-something, slightly overweight nobody, planning to make a quick cash haul at a backroom poker game. As he soon learns, the best-laid plans often go awry. 

Read more

Staying with the Dream

An aspiring writer toughs it out in Lily King’s Writers & Lovers

The heroine of Lily King’s fifth novel, Writers & Lovers, is 31 years old, deeply in debt, and living in a potting shed, but she won’t let her writing dream die.

Read more

A Sexy, Impressionistic Feast

Leesa Cross-Smith’s story collection makes a joyful statement

Leesa Cross-Smith’s new book of short fiction, So We Can Glow, feels like a radical act of joy. On the whole, the collection is a sexy, impressionistic feast of feminine energy and agency.

Read more

The Ground Is Swollen With Your Name

Trauma runs throughout Tiana Clark’s I Can’t Talk About the Trees Without the Blood

The poems in Tiana Clark’s debut collection, I Can’t Talk About The Trees Without The Blood, propel us into encounters with traumas ancient and immediate, blurring any distinctions of time. 

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