Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Margaret Renkl

Mapping the Pathways of the Heart

Phyllis Tickle, influential religious writer and publisher, has died at her home in Lucy

October 2, 2015 Phyllis Tickle, influential author of more than two dozen books about faith and religion, died of lung cancer on September 22, 2015, at her home in Lucy, Tennessee. She was eighty-one.

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Equilibrium Might Be a Little Hard to Manage Today, Actually

“Equilibrium” a poem by Vanderbilt graduate student Tiana Clark, has just won a lucrative national prize

September 15, 2015 “Equilibrium” by Tiana Clark, a first-year graduate student in Vanderbilt University’s M.F.A program in creative writing has won first prize in the annual poetry competition sponsored by the literary magazine Rattle. The award carries a stipend of $10,000.

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“It Changes Everything, and It Changes Nothing”

Chapter 16’s own Ed Tarkington lands a book deal with Algonquin

July 30, 2015 Today Chapter 16 contributing writer Ed Tarkington talks about his forthcoming novel, Only Love Can Break Your Heart, which he calls a “mash-up of Cain and Abel, the Prodigal Son, The Graduate, and ‘A Rose for Emily,’ set in the small-town Upper South, with a soundtrack by Neil Young and Joni Mitchell.” Tarkington will read from the novel at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 9-11, 2015. All festival events are free and open to the public.

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Mrs. Philpott’s Penguins

Mary Laura Philpott’s all-too-human penguins have made the leap from Tumblr to the printed page

May 26, 2015 Mary Laura Philpott’s new book, Penguins With People Problems, features a charming set of hilarious cartoon penguins that Philpott draws with her finger on an iPad mini. The author and her birds will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on June 1, 2015, at 6:30 p.m., and at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis on June 4, 2015, at 6:30 p.m.

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Celebrating a Racial Pioneer

Biographer Andrew Maraniss gets a surprise phone call from Ethel Kennedy

May 18, 2015 The judges of the Robert F. Kennedy Book and Journalism Awards have singled out Andrew Maraniss’s Strong Inside: Perry Wallace and the Collision of Race and Sports in the South for special recognition.

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Writing Forever

Memphis-born playwright Katori Hall talks about her new production, The Blood Quilt

May 4, 2015 Katori Hall’s newest play, The Blood Quilt opened in Washington, D.C., on April 24. In a new profile, The Washington Post talks with Hall about the story behind the drama.

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