Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Hanging with the Dead

Intrigue abounds in a town where ghosts are less threatening than the living

With The Promise of Lost Things, Nashville writer Helene Dunbar adds another page-turning chapter to the story of St. Hilaire, New York, and its spooky residents – both living and dead – begun in her 2020 novel, Prelude for Lost Souls. Dunbar will discuss the book at Parnassus Books in Nashville on July 27.

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Nothing Contrived

Stories from the Attic is the final collection by William Gay

When William Gay died suddenly in 2012, he left behind a considerable amount of unpublished work that has been slowly making its way into print. The final posthumous release, due in July, is Stories from the Attic, a collection of short stories, essays, and fragments from works-in-progress.

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Charting a Course

A childhood friendship filled with possibility

In our play, Jim and I coexist in a landscape of our own discovery with an atmosphere of richer oxygen. The world opens up in a new way, more becomes possible, there is a new kind of magic and an altered reality.

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Quintessential Observer

Brandon Taylor on his Southern roots and the joys of analog

Brandon Taylor’s prizewinning story collection, Filthy Animals, has just been released in paperback. He spoke with Chapter 16 about his Southern roots, his Baptist upbringing, how his brief career as a scientist has influenced his writing, and why he has been increasingly drawn to analog technologies in our digitally obsessed world.

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When the Looking Changes

Critic and author Teju Cole thinks about photography and politics

FROM THE CHAPTER 16 ARCHIVE: Teju Cole is the photography critic at The New York Times Magazine and the author of Blind Spot, a collection of photographs accompanied by brief pieces of writing. 

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