Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

“Center Hill”

Book Excerpt: Savage Flower

Anna B. Sutton was born and raised in Nashville. She received her B.F.A. from the Appalachian Center for Craft at Tennessee Tech and her M.F.A. from University of North Carolina Wilmington. Her debut collection, Savage Flower, was the winner of the 2019 St. Lawrence Book Award. She will appear at the online 2021 Southern Festival of Books.

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Politics for Christians

Former governor Bill Haslam discusses the role of faith in government

Former Tennessee governor Bill Haslam does a deep dive into the two subjects not fit for polite conversation in Faithful Presence: The Promise and the Peril of Faith in the Public Square. Haslam, also the former mayor of Knoxville, outlines a way of approaching the role of religious faith in the hardball arena of politics. He will appear at the online 2021 Southern Festival of Books.

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“One Thing I Have Learned”

Book Excerpt: Edge of the Echo

KB Ballentine’s seventh collection, Edge of the Echo, launched in May 2021 with Iris Press. Earlier books include The Light Tears Loose; Almost Everything, Almost Nothing; and Gathering Stones. Her work also appears in anthologies including Pandemic Evolution (2021). She lives in Chattanooga.

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A Pretty Place to Die

Chris Offutt’s The Killing Hills delivers a taut, gripping Kentucky-noir thriller

Few writers today can boast of a body of work as wide-ranging and virtuosic as Chris Offutt’s. His novels and short stories bend genre and upend expectations. The Killing Hills is no exception: A taut, gripping thriller, it also draws us deep into the lives of its troubled characters with wit and compassion. Chris Offutt will discuss the book at a virtual event hosted by Novel in Memphis on June 17.

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Feeling No but Saying Yes

Troubled kids find a balm for pain in the love of a good dog

Luna Howls at the Moon is Kristin O’Donnell Tubb’s third middle-grade novel to feature a service dog as protagonist and narrator, a charming device that works well in this case to illustrate the value of pairing therapy animals with troubled children. Tubb will discuss the book at a virtual event hosted by Parnassus Books in Nashville on June 15.

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