Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Archaeology of the Imagination

David Madden’s Marble Goddesses and Mortal Flesh, a collection of novellas, explores a writer’s journey

David Madden’s new collection of novellas, Marble Goddesses and Mortal Flesh, traces the arc of an artist’s journey and testifies to the power of a veteran writer who continues to find innovative ways to entertain and instruct readers.

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Real Bones, Real Person, Not a Myth, Not a Story

In Bryn Chancellor’s Sycamore, a small town reckons with the eruption of a long-buried mystery

For the characters of Bryn Chancellor’s accomplished debut novel, Sycamore, the image of a vanished girl has come to embody the instability marking their lives. Once a new arrival discovers human remains outside town, their pasts suddenly press into the present.

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A Life’s Work to Save the Planet

Despite climate calamities unfolding daily around the globe, Al Gore finds hope for the future

An Inconvenient Sequel unpacks the latest scientific data about climate change and spotlights ongoing advocacy efforts around the world. For this book Al Gore focuses on three simple questions: “Must we change?” “Can we change?” “Will we change?”

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Looking Back—and Looking Forward

Editor Adam Ross talks with Chapter 16 about the 500th issue of The Sewanee Review

This fall marks the publication of the 500th issue of The Sewanee Review and a full year of issues under Adam Ross’s leadership. Today the Nashville novelist talks with Chapter 16 about how the past informs the present—and influences the future—at the oldest literary magazine in the country.

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Of Ghost Plants and Whooping Cranes

Naturalist Stephen Lyn Bales considers a dozen exceptional species in Ephemeral by Nature

In his collection of essays, Ephemeral by Nature, naturalist Stephen Lyn Bales is deeply philosophical about our burdened planet. He makes a convincing case for joy and curiosity despite—or perhaps because of—the transience of all living things.

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No Child Left Behind

Jeff Kinney talks with Chapter 16 about his megahit series of children’s books that began with Diary of a Wimpy Kid

The Diary of a Wimpy Kid books are an astonishing phenomenon. What started as a serial comic posted online has become a wildly popular series of books for children. In this repost from 2010, the Wimpy Kid’s creator, Jeff Kinney, answered questions from Chapter 16. Kinney will read from The Getaway, the newest installment of the series, at Oak Hill School in Nashville on November 13 beginning at 4:30 p.m.

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