Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

The Right to Decide

Take My Hand considers a terrible injustice fueled by prejudice and good intentions

Inspired by true events in 1970s Alabama, Dolen Perkins-Valdez’s third novel, Take My Hand, gives voice to a Black physician at the end of her career who can’t be at peace until she shares the story of two girls victimized by racism and the arrogance of good intentions. Perkins-Valdez will discuss Take My Hand at Novel in Memphis on May 7.

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Little Town Killer

Jeremy Scott delivers a fast-paced, complex murder mystery

Jeremy Scott, author of The Ables series and co-creator of YouTube’s CinemaSins, returns with the propulsive and thrilling When the Corn Is Waist High.

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The Bread of Life

Tallu Schuyler Quinn reflects on the ingredients of a good life in her posthumous memoir

Tallu Schuyler Quinn, the late founder and executive director of The Nashville Food Project, prepares for death through examining the ingredients of a good life in her posthumous memoir, What We Wish Were True. An event to celebrate What We Wish Were True will be held at Harpeth Hall’s Frances Bond Davis Theater in Nashville on April 19.

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Sinners List

How do we reconcile a belief in forgiveness with years of public shaming?

It’s Georgia law that sex offenders register with the state each year, but in Blue Ridge, the local paper also publishes current and former offenders, with their name, age, and photo. And there was Harold, with his big, bumpy nose and kind eyes.

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“The Last Time”

Book Excerpt: Water Lessons

Lisa Dordal teaches in the English department at Vanderbilt University. Her first collection of poetry, Mosaic of the Dark, was a finalist for the 2019 Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry. Dordal will celebrate the launch of Water Lessons at The Bookshop in Nashville on April 10, with additional readings by Destiny O. Birdsong and Kendra DeColo.

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First Love

A daughter seeks to fulfill her mother’s last wish in Here Lies

In the opening line of her debut novel, Here Lies, Olivia Clare Friedman captures an emotion that is both foundational and indefinable, a feeling so primordial it predates our own memory of existence: a child’s love for a parent. Friedman explores this love with power and insight.

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