Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Honoring Grief, History, and Family

Crystal Wilkinson on her new culinary memoir, Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts

Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts, a food memoir by former Kentucky Poet Laureate Crystal Wilkinson, offers a banquet of voices, memories, imagination, and archival photographs. Wilkinson will appear at The Bookshop in Nashville on February 2 and Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on February 3.

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How to Be a Person

In Come and Get It, Kiley Reid’s college characters tackle life’s big questions

In Kiley Reid’s Come and Get It, a visiting writing professor at the University of Arkansas entangles herself in the tumultuous lives of college students. Reid will discuss her novel at Parnassus Books in Nashville on February 3.

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Desolation Rowboat

Cormac McCarthy’s Suttree teems with heartbreak, humor, and stunning prose

Cormac McCarthy made his name and fame in the West, but his most enduring character was Knoxville river rat Cornelius Suttree.

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Fools in Love

Lovesick Blossoms highlights queer romance in the South

FROM THE CHAPTER 16 ARCHIVE: Julia Watts’ latest novel, Lovesick Blossoms, nestles the reader in the 1953 university culture of Kentucky and the lives of LGBTQ+ individuals trying to juggle public and private personas. Watts will appear at the 2023 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville on October 21-22.

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The Good-Heartedness Never Leaves

George Singleton brings his gift for storytelling to the essays in Asides

In the introduction to his essay collection, Asides, George Singleton writes, “There happen to be some great essayists. I don’t count myself in this group.” Readers who dive into this lovely slim book full of dogs, writing advice, and summer jobs will disagree.

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In the Presence of the Unseen

Poet Jane Hicks uncovers hidden worlds in The Safety of Small Things

Throughout East Tennessee poet Jane Hicks’ stunning new collection, The Safety of Small Things, the unseen elements of our lives reveal themselves in vibrant, insistent ways. With masterful discernment, Hicks enables us to sense the many-layered truths contained in each moment and to marvel at their resonance. 

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