Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Jane Marcellus

The Work of Secrecy

The Girls of Atomic City tells the stories of women in wartime Oak Ridge

Denise Kiernan’s 2013 book The Girls of Atomic City chronicles the experiences of women working in the secrecy-shrouded town of Oak Ridge during WWII. The author will join Jane Marcellus to discuss the book on Facebook Live on September 19.

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Recalling the “Clinton 12”

Rachel Louise Martin chronicles the battle to desegregate an East Tennessee high school

Rachel Louise Martin’s A Most Tolerant Little Town: The Explosive Beginning of School Desegregation recounts the story of the “Clinton 12,” who in 1956 were the first students to desegregate an all-white public high school in the South. Martin will discuss the book at Parnassus Books in Nashville on June 14 and Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on June 20.

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An Oak Ridge Story

Half-Life of a Secret explores a family’s secrets and a nation’s silence

In Half-Life of a Secret, Emily Strasser tells the story of her grandfather, a chemist for Oak Ridge’s World War II Manhattan Project, and how family secrets intersect with national ones.

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A Piercing Wail

Reckoning asks us all to come to terms with women’s experience

Reckoning by V (formerly Eve Ensler) asks readers to understand what violence does to women and anyone who is marginalized. She’ll appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on February 6.

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Flowers Blooming in a Blizzard

Understanding the work of poetry and place

Joy Harjo’s Catching the Light offers short vignettes on the meaning of language, poetry, and place, taking us to a realm between ordinary reality and artistic vision.

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Rolling Back History

No Choice takes readers to the heart of post-Roe America

Becca Andrews’ No Choice takes readers to communities in the South and beyond where abortion rights have eroded, particularly with the fall of Roe v. Wade. Andrews will appear at the 2022 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville on October 14-16.

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