TJ Jarrett is a software developer in Nashville and the author of two books: Ain’t No Grave and Zion (winner of the 2013 Crab Orchard Open Competition).
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“Give Me My Daily Wickedness”
Celebrated novelist Gish Jen talks with Chapter 16 about truth-telling and the project of fiction
A prolific writer known for exploring multiculturalism with keen intelligence, grace, and humor, Gish Jen is the author of four novels, a short-story volume, and, most recently, a nonfiction book created from the talks she gave at Harvard University in 2012 as part of the William E. Massey Sr. Lectures in the History of American Civilization.
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Let the Truth Show Itself in the Work
Chapter 16 talks with James McBride, author of the 2016 Nashville Reads selection, The Color of Water
Nearly twenty years have passed since the publication of James McBride’s first book, The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother. The memoir spent two years on the New York Times bestseller list and continues to be a regular selection for city-wide programs.
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Papers, Please
Daniel Connolly looks at challenges facing the children of immigrants
Reporter Daniel Connolly spent the 2012-2013 school year at Kingsbury High School in Memphis, where Latino teenagers make up nearly fifty percent of the student population. The Book of Isaias is his account of that year.
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Out of Safe Hiding
When a judge stopped the presses on Alice Randall’s first novel, Shelby Foote came to her aid
In 2001, when Shelby Foote was one of the writers who wrote to a Georgia judge on my behalf, I was surprised. Having Shelby Foote take my side against the Margaret Mitchell estate was a little like having Ashley take sides against Scarlett with an unacknowledged but not unborn daughter of Mammy’s. Of all the writers who stood with me—Toni Morrison, Pat Conroy, Harper Lee, Ishmael Reed, John Egerton, Tony Earley, Michael Kreyling, Larry McMurtry, and Arthur Schlesinger among them—no one had more to lose than Shelby Foote.
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Ghosts of Nashville
John Prine talks about songwriting, Nashville, Paradise, and his new book, Beyond Words
John Prine’s first official songbook, Beyond Words, collects sixty of his influential songs. It also offers a treasure trove of family photographs, song manuscripts, and short commentaries that highlight the singer’s incisive wit.
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