Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

The Imagined Country

In Charles Frazier’s The Trackers, a painter searches for a rich rancher’s runaway wife

Set in the later years of the Depression, Charles Frazier’s The Trackers tells the story of a painter, commissioned to create a mural for a Wyoming post office, who is hired by a wealthy rancher to locate his runaway wife. Charles Frazier will discuss The Trackers with Tony Earley at a ticketed event at Parnassus Books in Nashville on April 11.

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Extinguishing Shadows

Leta McCollough Seletzky’s The Kneeling Man explores the complex story behind an iconic photograph

In The Kneeling Man, Leta McCollough Seletzky tells the story of her father, an undercover policeman who posed as a Black militant during the 1968 sanitation strike in Memphis.

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Crime, Culture, and Complicity

Beverly Lowry’s Deer Creek Drive weaves true crime with memoir

FROM THE CHAPTER 16 ARCHIVE: Focused on the brutal killing of a Mississippi socialite, Beverly Lowry’s Deer Creek Drive revisits an event that grabbed national headlines, left lingering questions, and is still met with silence in the Delta town of Leland. Lowry will appear at SouthWord Literary Festival in Chattanooga on April 14-15.

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Supremes and Extremes

Daniel Kiel analyzes race, citizenship, and education through the lenses of Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas

In The Transition, University of Memphis law professor Daniel Kiel tracks the experiences and ideas of the first two Black Supreme Court justices, Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas. Kiel will discuss the book at Novel in Memphis on April 13.

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Remembrances of Knoxville Past

Linda Behrend revives Anne Armstrong’s stories of her adopted hometown in the late 1800s

Anne Wetzell Armstrong’s reminiscences of Knoxville at the end of the 19th century have been edited by Linda Behrend in the newly published Of Time and Knoxville: Fragment of an Autobiography. Behrend will discuss Armstrong’s life and memoir at Historic Westwood in Knoxville on April 13.

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Stronger Stuff

Hang the Moon brings feminism to the Prohibition era — and it’s a wild ride

In Jeannette Walls’ new novel Hang the Moon, a Prohibition-era woman steps out of her father’s shadow and creates a brave new world. Walls will discuss her book on April 4 at Parnassus Books in Nashville.

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