Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Strange and Evil

De’Shawn Charles Winslow’s Decent People uncovers troubling secrets in small-town North Carolina

In De’Shawn Charles Winslow’s Decent People, a woman hopes to retire quietly in her North Carolina hometown only to find it convulsed by a triple murder. Winslow will appear at the SouthWord Literary Festival in Chattanooga on April 14-15.

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Randall Kenan Could Fly

A posthumous collection captures a beloved writer’s brilliance

Black Folk Could Fly, a volume of selected writings by the late Randall Kenan, explores the many aspects of African American life in the South.

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She Loved Baseball

Andrea Williams tells the story of Effa Manley in Baseball’s Leading Lady

FROM THE CHAPTER 16 ARCHIVE: Nashville author Andrea Williams formerly worked in marketing and development for the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri. Her wide knowledge of the subject is evident in her first book for young readers, Baseball’s Leading Lady: Effa Manley and the Rise and Fall of the Negro Leagues, an account of the only woman in the Baseball Hall of Fame. 

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One Mississippi, Two

I can’t forget my client’s final phone call

Thirty-six hours after my client was executed, I drove along the highway in the direction opposite the prison for my wisdom teeth extraction. The throb ballooning at the back of my gums had become a rhythmic, welcome distraction from the grief scratching my throat ragged.

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Pack Man

Michael Nelson analyzes FDR’s ill-fated court-packing plan of 1937

In Vaulting Ambition, Michael Nelson explains the flawed decisions that led to one of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s greatest missteps: his 1937 plan to add new justices to the Supreme Court. Nelson will appear in conversation with Joe Birch at Novel in Memphis on March 5.

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A Disaster and a Dauntless Town

Meet the heroes and martyrs of the Waverly Train Disaster in Walk Through Fire

Dr. Yasmine S. Ali’s Walk Through Fire: The Train Disaster That Changed America creates a gripping drama about dark days in her hometown’s history. Ali will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on February 27, the Humphreys County Public Library in Waverly on March 3, the Dickson County Public Library on March 9, and the Tennessee State Museum in Nashville on April 8.

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