Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Erica Ciccarone

High Water

The Gone Dead is a blues novel that’s out to summon ghosts

In Chanelle Benz’s debut novel The Gone Dead, a woman arrives in the Mississippi Delta to claim her inheritance — and stays to solve the mystery of her father’s death. Benz will discuss The Gone Dead at Novel in Memphis on June 25

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Against the Odds

The World According to Fannie Davis is full of history, luck, and love

In The World According to Fannie Davis: My Mother’s Life in the Detroit Numbers, Bridgett M. Davis tells the story of her mother, a woman who “made a way out of no way” as a banker in the underground lottery. Davis will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on March 13.

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Strikes and Gutters

Elizabeth McCracken’s Bowlaway is a genealogy set in a bowling alley

Elizabeth McCracken’s Bowlaway is an epic tale of love, grief, and candlepin bowling. McCracken will discuss her third novel with Ann Patchett at Parnassus Books in Nashville on February 22.

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Confessions of a Fangirl

With Dead Girls, Alice Bolin navigates fantasy and reality in pop culture and beyond

Alice Bolin’s essay collection, Dead Girls, is a savvy mix of cultural critique, coming-of-age diary, and confessions of a pop-culture fangirl. Bolin will read at Novel in Memphis on September 20, at The Bookshop in Nashville on September 23, and at the 2018 Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 12-14.

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This Little Light of Mine

Linda Williams Jackson talks with Chapter 16 about race, class, and courage

In A Sky Full of Stars, the sequel to Linda Williams Jackson’s Midnight Without a Moon, scrappy teenager Rosa Carter watches the civil-rights movement unfold and picks up a picket sign herself. Jackson will appear at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Memphis on February 17.

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Everyone Fights an American War

Omar El Akkad’s novel imagines a dystopia of partisan political divisions

In Omar El Akkad’s American War, an environmental crisis leads to a second civil war in the United States. El Akkad will appear at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville October 13-15.

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