Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Haunted Handbook

Rebecca Green’s debut picture book introduces some friendly ghosts

Look no further for new Halloween reading with children: Nashville illustrator Rebecca Green delights young readers with her debut picture book, How to Make Friends with a Ghost.

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Wandering and Wondering Why

Nashville’s Jamie Blaine returns with new adventures in late-night psychiatric counseling

“Here’s the score,” writes Nashville author Jamie Blaine in his new memoir, Mercy Never Sleeps. “My social circle consists of junkies and schizophrenics, inmates, suicidal housewives, cops and ER docs, and convenience store clerks on graveyard shift. Am I lost? Or found?”

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Scottish Kings and Millenial Minstrelsy

Ayanna Thompson returns to Memphis to discuss Shakespeare and race

Shakespeare’s “Scottish play” has played an important role in America’s cultural confrontation with racial issues, according to Weyward Macbeth, a collection of essays that survey the play’s complex intersection with the color line. Ayanna Thompson, co-editor of the book, will speak on “Shakespeare, Race, and Performance: What We Still Don’t Know” in Hardie Auditorium at Rhodes College in Memphis on November 2 at 7 p.m.

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Stars of Southern Literature Arrive in Tennessee

The SouthWord Literary Feast will convene in Chattanooga November 3-4

SouthWord Literary Feast, a biennial book festival and reunion of the Fellowship of Southern Writers, will feature forty celebrated Southern authors, including Wendell Berry, Charles Frazier, Jill McCorkle, and Ron Rash. Seating is available for talks, readings, panel discussions, book signings, and meals November 3 and 4.

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Living Honestly and Freely

Novelist Tova Mirvis writes about her decision to abandon Orthodox Judaism in The Book of Separation

As an Orthodox Jew, Tova Mirvis was taught from childhood that being a good wife and mother was her sacred duty, and her whole existence was shaped and bound by religious law. In her new memoir, The Book of Separation, she recalls her decision to leave her marriage and her faith community. Mirvis will appear at the Memphis Jewish Community Center on November 2 at 7 p.m.

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Wordsworth’s Heir

Billy Collins, former poet laureate, talks with Chapter 16 about why we’re all born for poetry—and how school kills it for kids

Billy Collins is a frequent guest on National Public Radio shows like A Prairie Home Companion and Fresh Air, and his readings pack even halls that seat two thousand people or more. Collins will read from his new collection, The Rain in Portugal, at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music on October 26 at 6:15 p.m.

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