Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Good Old-Fashioned Murder

Michael Sims’ new anthology of short fiction presents antique whodunit gems

In his latest anthology of Victorian-era fiction, The Penguin Book of Murder Mysteries, Michael Sims presents the evolution of the short-form murder mystery.

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Cutting Remembrances

Kevin Powers, author of The Yellow Birds, discusses the delicate art of writing about war

FROM THE CHAPTER 16 ARCHIVE: A National Book Award Finalist and winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award for First Fiction, The Yellow Birds by Iraq War veteran Kevin Powers has been hailed by a host of literary luminaries as an instant classic. Written in lyrical prose that veers between terse understatement and vivid figurative language, The Yellow Birds is a rich literary experience as well as a harrowing narrative about the effects of war on both soldiers and families. 

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A Poet of the Heart

Remembering Arthur Smith (1948-2018)

Arthur Smith came to Knoxville from central California, by way of Houston, Texas, and for more than 30 years he helped poets at the University of Tennessee find the path toward their own voices. His friend and fellow poet Jesse Graves remembers Smith on the fifth anniversary of his death.

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A Murder on Campus

The psychology of deception takes center stage in R.J. Jacobs’ new thriller

R.J. Jacobs’ This Is How We End Things delivers a twisting, turning grad school murder mystery.

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Building on Reality

V.E. Schwab on her new fantasy series and whether she’s a Southern writer

Nashville native V.E. Schwab talks with Chapter 16 about The Fragile Threads of Power, the first novel in a new trilogy that returns readers to the Four Londons of her Shades of Magic series.

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A Different Dark

Jim Minick captures the human drama of a deadly F5 tornado in Without Warning

Jim Minick’s Without Warning: The Tornado of Udall, Kansas offers a gripping nonfiction narrative of the deadliest tornado in Kansas history. Minick will speak at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City on November 15.

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