Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Emily Choate

Fresh Soil in Old Territory

Ron Rash’s In the Valley displays his masterful command of short fiction  

From haunting, short-form meditations on loss to a thrilling, suspenseful novella that revives an indelible antihero, In the Valley offers a distillation of Ron Rash’s storytelling mastery at its best. Rash will discuss In the Valley at the online 2021 Southern Festival of Books on October 9.

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Tales of a Preservationist

A new collection of essays highlights Silas House’s life and work

The essays in Silas House: Exploring an Appalachian Writer’s Work reflect the high degree of respect and adoration that House has gained among his peers for his novels, music journalism, and plays, as well as his activism. Editor Sylvia Bailey Shurbutt gathers a thoughtful group of Appalachian scholars and literary writers to analyze House’s body of work. 

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The Curvature of the World

Great Circle explores the interconnected lives surrounding a famous woman aviator

Maggie Shipstead’s century-spanning Great Circle traces aviator Marian Graves’ single-minded pursuit of flight and the lives of numerous characters connected to her, including a scandalous movie star preparing to play Marian onscreen. Shipstead will discuss the novel at a virtual event hosted by Parnassus Books in Nashville on May 20.

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The Cost of Healing

Anjali Enjeti’s The Parted Earth follows several generations of personal fallout from India’s Partition

Running through the core of Anjali Enjeti’s debut novel, The Parted Earth, is the volatile atmosphere of India’s Partition, a deadly era of violence that tore apart communities and families. Spanning generations and countries, the story examines the personal costs of starting over in the face of tragedy.

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She Found Ways to Be Fascinating

Natalie Standiford’s Astrid Sees All charts the course of a young friendship in early 1980s New York City

Natalie Standiford’s Astrid Sees All follows Phoebe, a naïve young woman under the sway of an intoxicating friendship, into the perilous, glamorous world of early 1980s New York City. Standiford will discuss the book at a virtual event hosted by Parnassus Books in Nashville on April 20.

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Resisting a Truce with the Unknown

J. Nicole Jones conjures her South Carolina family’s storied past in Low Country

Richly detailed and atmospheric, Nashville writer J. Nicole Jones’ memoir, Low Country, tells the multi-generational story of Jones’ family but does so by hybridizing that narrative with an ecosystem of history, folklore, and ghost stories long associated with South Carolina’s swamps, beaches, and pine forests.

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