Chapter 16 | A Community of  Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

An Intimate Conversation

Jenn Shapland’s memoir explores the relationship between a writer and her subject

By Jane Marcellus | January 27, 2020

After discovering Carson McCullers’ correspondence with love interest Annemarie Clarac-Schwarzenbach, writer Jenn Shapland set off on a journey to learn more about McCullers, and in doing so, about herself. She tells the story of the journey in My Autobiography of Carson McCullers: A Memoir. Shapland will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on February 5 and at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on February 7.

Close Call

Second-prize winner in the Tennessee True Stories Essay Contest

By Richard C. Albins | January 24, 2020

Metal buckets evoke a feeling in me that’s hard to shake. Whenever I see one, a memory comes rushing back.

Wielding Power Softly

Amy Greenberg’s new biography calls Sarah Polk the ‘First Lady who was a lady first’

By Peggy Burch | January 23, 2020

Amy S. Greenberg, professor of history and women’s studies at Penn State University, will talk about Lady First, her biography of Sarah Childress Polk, at the East Tennessee History Center in Knoxville on January 29.

Learning How To Be

In Shining Man, Todd Dills’ picaresque hero goes on a raucous journey of self-discovery

By Sean Kinch | January 22, 2020

Todd Dills’ novel Shining Man follows the adventures of a detached young man from Charlotte, North Carolina, who journeys to Chicago to find his missing father.

A Taste of Tennessee’s History

Taproots of Tennessee is equal parts history, cookbook, and travel guide

By Sarah Carter | January 21, 2020

Songwriter Lynne Drysdale Patterson visited 17 historical sites across the state to gather the material for Taproots of Tennessee, a book that reaches across genres to deliver historical narrative, travel information, and recipes from each place.

Grasshopper

First-prize winner in the Tennessee True Stories Essay Contest

By Yurina Yoshikawa | January 17, 2020

James was the only person I’d talked to in the first week of moving to Nashville, outside of my husband and the local coffee shop guy. We would be spending many hours together, just the two of us in this little car. I wanted him to like me.