Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Convictions

Damien Echols guides readers through the spiritual practices that saved him on death row

“You’re already doing magick,” Damien Echols writes in High Magick, his introductory guide to the energy-based spiritual practices that helped him survive eighteen years on death row. Echols will discuss the book at Unity of Nashville on November 8 at 6:15 p.m.

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The Black Scale

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s Friday Black explores racial identity through satire

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s debut story collection depicts black characters who fear their race marks them as undesirable, or worse. Adjei-Brenyah will discuss Friday Black at Parnassus Books in Nashville on November 6, and at Novel in Memphis on November 7.

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They Got the Beat

A new anthology considers the role of women artists in rock-n-roll

Women Who Rock: Bessie to Beyonce, Girl Groups to Riot Grrrl, Evelyn McDonnell’s gorgeous new coffee-table book with illustrations by four impressive women visual artists, traces the evolution of women in music.

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The Descent of Man

Barbara Kingsolver’s Unsheltered tells parallel stories of desperate families

The protagonists of Barbara Kingsolver’s Unsheltered are two families, separated by 140 years, who occupy a dilapidated house during parallel periods of cultural crisis. Kingsolver will discuss Unsheltered at Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville on November 2. The event is part of the Salon@615 series.

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William Gay

Book Excerpt: Jesus Crawdad Death

In this excerpt from Jesus Crawdad Death, a new limited-edition chapbook from Third Man Books, Chapter 16’s Betsy Phillips considers the power of an unfinished ghost story by the late Hohenwald novelist William Gay. Phillips will appear at Third Man Records in Nashville on October 28 at 4 p.m.

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Men Falling from the Sky

In Erica Wright’s new Kat Stone mystery, death hits a little too close to home

In The Blue Kingfisher, Erica Wright continues the story of her dauntless detective, Kat Stone, in a tale of greed, family, fear, and—despite everything—something like grace. Wright will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on November 4.

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