Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

A Book About Now

Sharon Cameron’s latest YA novel explores the difference between art and artifice

For Artifice, her third young adult novel set during World War II, Nashville author Sharon Cameron paints a colorful and suspenseful thriller inspired by historical heroes and villains living in Amsterdam during the Nazi occupation. Cameron will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on November 7.

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Bearing Witness

David Dark on resisting “deferential fear”

In We Become What We Normalize, David Dark considers the societal cost of going along to get along. Dark will discuss the book at Parnassus Books in Nashville on November 10, Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on November 12, and Novel in Memphis on November 19.

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Strength in Vulnerability

Poet, memoirist, and playwright Dan O’Brien discusses his three new books

This year marks the publication of three books by Dan O’Brien: Survivor’s Notebook, his fifth poetry collection; From Scarsdale, a childhood memoir mining familial trauma; and True Story, a trilogy of documentary plays.

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Changing Times

In The Forsaken and the Dead, Sidney Thompson portrays the final years of famed lawman Bass Reeves

Sidney Thompson talks with Chapter 16 about his trilogy of novels based on the life of Bass Reeves, a celebrated Black U.S. Marshal. Thompson will appear at Novel in Memphis on November 16.

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Falling Back in Love with October

On losing the joy of autumn and finding it again

FROM THE CHAPTER 16 ARCHIVE: In Alabama, October was the first month that you could trust cooler weather was coming to stay. Occasionally, I could even wear a sweater in the morning, and although it was wrapped around my waist by afternoon, the heat was not overbearing. Finally, at night, I could snuggle under a sheet and fall asleep. To make a good thing even better, the month began with my father’s birthday and ended with Halloween. There was nothing bad about October in my eyes.

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Dream or Nightmare?

Molly McGhee’s debut novel takes a surreal look at modern employment

In her debut novel, Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind, Molly McGhee considers harsh economic realities through a dream-like lens. McGhee will appear at The Bookshop in Nashville on November 20.

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