Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

The Play’s the Thing

A Nashville theologian considers the genius of James P. Carse

For James P. Carse, people are never not playing in one way or another. How we play—the expectations we bring and the invitations we are open to from moment to moment—is the whole human deal. Carse will give a free public address at Belmont University in Nashville on February 8 as part of Belmont’s Faith and Culture Symposium. The event is free and open to the public.

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Hot Time in the City

Hermione Hoby’s Neon in Daylight is set during an endless NYC heat wave

For the young protagonist of Hermione Hoby’s debut novel, Neon in Daylight, an alcoholic writer and his danger-seeking daughter lend an alluring glamor to a sweltering Manhattan summer. Hoby will discuss Neon in Daylight at Parnassus Books in Nashville on February 1 at 6:30 p.m.

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After Tragedy

Two men’s lives are forever changed in Steve Yarbrough’s The Unmade World

The paths of two very different men intersect in Steve Yarbrough’s The Unmade World, and both lives are changed forever. This tale of entwined fates becomes a meditation on guilt, innocence, and ordinary injustice, as well as a story about how we seek meaning even in the face of life’s most baffling cruelties.

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Discovering the Right Stuff

Astronaut Scott Kelly tells the story of his quest for the stars

In Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery, Scott Kelly and Margaret Lazarus Dean describe the making of an astronaut and the almost yearlong mission that made him a living science experiment in extended space flight.

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Testing Positive for Hope

Gregory Boyle offers a lifeline to gang members in Los Angeles

In his latest nonfiction book, Barking to the Choir, Gregory Boyle highlights a central tenet of gang-member rehabilitation: the importance of kinship. Boyle will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on January 29.

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What Power Has Love

The poems in Marilyn Kallet’s new collection embrace the human struggle to reconcile the animal and the divine

How Our Bodies Learned, the new poetry collection from Knoxville poet Marilyn Kallet, is a sensual and spiritual guide to understanding what love is—and what it isn’t. Kallet will read from the book at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville on January 29 and at Vanderbilt University in Nashville on February 15.

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