Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

The Party Primer

A Chapter 16 writer takes Martina McBride’s new cookbook for a spin

October 13, 2014 Dinner-party mavens and newbie entertainers alike will find bright ideas in Martina McBride’s debut cookbook, Around the Table, which offers four seasons’ worth of themed gatherings. With recipes, decorating ideas, shortcuts, and even music playlists, each chapter guides the host through all the paces of pulling off a terrific, memorable party. McBride will discuss the book at the Harpeth Hall School in Nashville on October 13, 2014, and at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis on October 14, 2014.

Read more

All Together Now

A Chapter 16 writer considers the collective spirit of the Southern Festival of Books

October 10, 2014 The Southern Festival of Books is big, varied, and one of the most inclusive cultural events around. Chapter 16’s Maria Browning considers the special pleasure of the festival’s collective spirit. The twenty-sixth annual Southern Festival of Books will take place in Nashville October 10-12, 2014, at Legislative Plaza and the Nashville Public Library. All festival events are free and open to the public.

Read more

Beyond Bullets and Battles

Redeployment, Phil Klay’s debut story collection, considers the complexity of modern warfare

October 9, 2014 Redeployment—Phil Klay’s debut story collection, which has just been long-listed for the National Book Award—considers the complexity of modern warfare, where fighting units compete for glory; corpse-eating dogs have to be shot; and soldiers are counseled, patched up, or shipped home in a bag. Klay will appear at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 10-12, 2014. All festival events are free and open to the public.

Read more

The Impossible Reach of History

Rebecca Makkai’s second novel unearths a century’s worth of family secrets

October 9, 2014 Rebecca Makkai’s new novel, The Hundred-Year House, reveals its secrets slowly, layer by layer, as the reader travels back in time from 1999 to 1900. At the center of the story is a house that becomes a character in its own right as Makkai combines straightforward narrative with snippets of poetry, telegrams, and letters to create a mood that is both modern and mysterious, historical and haunting. Makkai will appear at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 10-12, 2014. All festival events are free and open to the public.

Read more

Each Day a New World

Jacqueline Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming is the story of a life told in soaring verse

October 8, 2014 In evocative verse, Jacqueline Woodson, who has just been longlisted for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, shares the story of her childhood in Brown Girl Dreaming. Woodson will appear at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville on October 12, 2014, and at the Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis on October 13, 2014. Both events are free and open to the public.

Read more

New Deals

Both Victoria Schwab and Jessica Young have inked contracts on new series fiction for children and young adults

October 7, 2014 Across publishing, children’s and YA titles have kept the publishing industry profitable this year, and Middle Tennessee authors Jessica Young and Victoria Schwab are doing their part for the trend.

Read more
TAKE THE SHORT READER SURVEY! CHAPTER 16 SURVEYOR SURVEYING