Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

The Things We Do for Love

Rosecrans Baldwin plumbs the depths of feeling in The Last Kid Left

In The Last Kid Left, Rosecrans Baldwin’s young lovers face what seem to be impossible odds—a double murder, sexual violence, drugs, insanity, and alcoholism. Baldwin will discuss his second novel at the 2017 Southern Festival of Books, which will be held in Nashville October 13-15.

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Beautiful, Muddy Things

A teenager carves a small-town space for herself in Courtney Stevens’s latest YA novel

Billie McCaffrey, narrator of Courtney Stevens’s latest YA novel, Dress Codes for Small Towns, must find a way to reconcile her square-peg place in a round-hole Kentucky town. Stevens will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on August 25 at 6:30 p.m.; at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Chattanooga on September 9 at 2 p.m.; and at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 13-15.

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Quoth the Raven

Jim Minick’s novel of faith healing begins with a disastrous fire

In Fire Is Your Water, Jim Minick’s debut novel, a young couple faces disasters and struggles with their relationships to each other and to God. Minick will appear at The Arts Building in Chattanooga on August 27; and at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 13-15; and at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on October 15.

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Cold Hands, Warm Heart

Book publicist Caitlin Hamilton Summie steps to the other side of the literary desk

Caitlin Hamilton Summie’s debut story collection, To Lay to Rest Our Ghosts, explores complex familial relationships against the backdrop of the snow-covered Midwest. The author will appear at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Knoxville on August 26 and at the Southern Festival of Books, which will be held in Nashville October 13-15.

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Welcome, Novel!

Tennessee’s newest independent bookstore opens its doors in Memphis

Novel, the long-awaited bookstore planned for the space formerly occupied by The Booksellers at Laurelwood, opens tomorrow at 387 Perkins Extension in Memphis. Chapter 16‘s Stephen Usery took these preview photos.

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Small and Immense

In a new collection, poet Jeff Hardin explores greatness in artists and in nature

Jeff Hardin’s latest poetry collection, No Other Kind of World, which won the 2016 X.J. Kennedy Award, examines artists’ capacity for greatness and nature’s talent for humbling us all. Hardin will read from the book at the Scarritt Bennett Center in Nashville on August 24; at Landmark Booksellers in Franklin on August 29; and at the 2017 Southern Festival Books, which will be held in Nashville October 13-15.

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