Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Jesse Graves

“Pretty Music”

July 15, 2014 Jesse Graves is an assistant professor of English at Johnson City’s East Tennessee State University. His first poetry collection, Tennessee Landscape with Blighted Pine, won the 2011 Weatherford Award in Poetry from Berea College and the Appalachian Studies Association. He is also co-editor of The Southern Poetry Anthology: Tennessee and author of a new collection, Basin Ghosts. Graves will read from Basin Ghosts at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on July 26, 2014, at 2 p.m., and at the Southern Festival of Books, which will be held in Nashville October 10-12, 2014.

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Celebrating the Wide Embrace

Poet Jesse Graves considers the life and literary achievements of Jeff Daniel Marion

July 29, 2013 “One of the most persistent themes in the poetry of Jeff Daniel Marion is a recognition of transience, that what is here now can quickly vanish into the air.” Poet Jesse Graves considers the lessons he’s learned over the the years—about poetry, love, home—from poet Jeff Daniel Marion. Jesse Graves and Jeff Daniel Marion will appear at the twenty-fifth annual Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 11-13. All festival events are free and open to the public.

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“Digging the Pond”

an excerpt from Tennessee Landscape with Blighted Pine

July 9, 2012 Jesse Graves teaches writing and literature classes as an assistant professor of English at Johnson City’s East Tennessee State University, where he won a 2012 New Faculty Award from the College of Arts & Sciences. He completed a Ph.D. in English at the University of Tennessee, and an M.F.A. in creative writing from Cornell University. His first poetry collection, Tennessee Landscape with Blighted Pine, was published by Texas Review Press and won the 2011 Weatherford Award in Poetry from Berea College and the Appalachian Studies Association. Other work appears in recent or forthcoming issues of Prairie Schooner, Georgia Review, Appalachian Heritage, and Connecticut Review. Graves will read from the collection at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on July 14 at 3 p.m.

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