Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Love and Theft

Exploring the idea of an American national literature, Jason Richards finds a complex play of imitations

In Imitation Nation: Red, White, and Blackface in Early and Antebellum US Literature, Rhodes College professor Jason Richards brings theoretical sophistication to close readings of some well-known and not so well-known texts in American literature, showing the complexities of cultural imitation before the Civil War.

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Among Family

A neglected girl finds a home in Kimberly Brubaker Bradley’s The War I Finally Won

The War I Finally Won is the eagerly awaited sequel to Kimberly Brubaker Bradley’s Newbery Honor-winning middle-grade novel, The War That Saved My Life. Bradley will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on April 30.

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History Twisting Up Bright and Green

Poets Jesse Graves and William Wright merge perspectives in Specter Mountain

Throughout Specter Mountain, Jesse Graves and William Wright’s collaborative poetry collection, the mountain landscape itself emerges as a powerful, haunting source of revelation. The result is a unique contribution to Appalachian literature.

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A Martyr’s Redemption

Joseph Rosenbloom talks with Chapter 16 about the final days of Martin Luther King Jr.

On April 3, Martin Luther King Jr. arrived in Memphis to lead a nonviolent march in support of striking sanitation workers. The next day, he was murdered. In Redemption, Joseph Rosenbloom describes those thirty-one hours with rich detail and compelling analysis. Rosenbloom will speak at Novel in Memphis on April 23 and at Parnassus Books in Nashville on April 26.

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Permission Slip

Meg Wolitzer’s The Female Persuasion depicts a feminist tussle between generations

When a recent college graduate goes to work for Faith Frank, a feminist legend, she undergoes an initiation into her mentor’s world-and her own conscience. Meg Wolitzer will discuss The Female Persuasion at Parnassus Books in Nashville on April 19.

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