Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Voices Nearby and Far-Flung

ETSU’s spring creative-writing festival features Jamaican poet Ishion Hutchinson

On April 11 and 12, East Tennessee State University in Johnson City will host its second annual literary festival, offering a slate of workshops, readings, and genre-focused craft presentations. The event culminates with a keynote address by celebrated poet Ishion Hutchinson. All festival events are free and open to the public.

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The Greatest Miracle

Anne Lamott offers her signature musings on mercy

In her new book, Hallelujah Anyway: Rediscovering Mercy, Anne Lamott is on the same page as Shakespeare when it comes to mercy, believing that it “blesseth him that gives and him that takes” and, frankly, that we all need a lot more of it. Lamott will discuss her new book, Hallelujah Anyway: Rediscovering Mercy, at First Presbyterian Church in Knoxville on April 9 at 7 p.m.

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How to Succeed at Being You

Jami Attenberg’s All Grown Up is a funny book with a serious point

Jami Attenberg’s All Grown Up tells the story of a single woman negotiating the trials of adulthood in New York City. Attenberg will discuss her sixth novel at Parnassus Books in Nashville on April 11 at 6:30 p.m.

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American Tragedy

Daniel J. Sharfstein captures two larger-than-life opponents of the Nez Perce war in Thunder in the Mountains

Thunder in the Mountains: Chief Joseph, Oliver Otis Howard, and the Nez Perce War, a new work of narrative history by Daniel J. Sharfstein, vividly portrays a bloody conflict and its leaders, in the process offering new insight into the enduring power of dissent. Sharfstein will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on April 6 at 6:30 p.m.

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Fragments Swarming Together and Apart

Jenny Offill discusses the unexpected success of Dept. of Speculation

“The threat to the narrator may be existential in nature but it’s still a threat,” Jenny Offill says of her novel Dept. of Speculation. “Her life is falling down around her.” Offill will read at Vanderbilt University in Nashville on April 6 at 7 p.m.

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