Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Erica Wright

The Self Without Boundary

An intimate consideration of Walt Whitman

In What Is the Grass: Walt Whitman in My Life, celebrated poet and memoirist Mark Doty explores the life and prophetic influence of Walt Whitman. 

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Monsters, Murders, and Midlife

Bram Stoker Award-winning author Grady Hendrix pits housewives against an immortal villain

In his latest horror-comedy mashup, The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, Grady Hendrix plumbs vampire legends and suburban expectations to create an original, terrifying, and inexplicably heartwarming tale.

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To Celebrate Being Alive

An award-winning poet reflects on the importance of daily practices

In Dailiness: Essays on Poetry, Mark Jarman considers canonical and contemporary writers while reflecting on the kinship of prayers and poems.

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A Sense of the Possible

Jane Hirshfield talks with Chapter 16 about poetry’s timelessness, camouflage in nature, and why she doesn’t need to be “pop-culture hip”

Celebrated poet Jane Hirshfield talks with Chapter 16 about her new poetry collection, The Beauty, and her new essay collection, Ten Windows: How Great Poems Transform the World

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Stories, Not Politics

Folklorist Bill Ivey offers a remedy for our fractured society

In his latest book, Rebuilding an Enlightened World: Folklorizing America, Bill Ivey, former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, addresses the moral failings of the U.S. and offers ideas for how to create a better world.

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The Fallout of Disaster

Vanderbilt visiting writer in nonfiction Joy Castro talks with Chapter 16

Vanderbilt University visiting nonfiction writer Joy Castro talks with Chapter 16 about language, the #MeToo movement, and behaving badly in fiction. She will give a free public reading at Vanderbilt on January 25.

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