Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Bringing People into the Room

Francesca T. Royster’s Black Country Music challenges boundaries

Francesca T. Royster’s Black Country Music weaves history, criticism, and memoir into an elegant narrative that challenges assumptions about what country music can be. Royster will appear at the 2022 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville on October 14-16.

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Sunset of the American Century

Victoria Shorr’s Mid-Air is an intimate portrait of 20th-century America

Victoria Shorr’s Mid-Air, a collection of two novellas, portrays the fall of a patrician New York family and the rise of an immigrant family to wealth and influence; both celebrate mid-20th-century America, an era fading from living memory. Shorr will discuss Mid-Air at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville on October 14-16.  

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Still Alive

Death haunts the essays in Rachel Kushner’s The Hard Crowd

Rachel Kushner’s The Hard Crowd gathers two decades of the critically acclaimed novelist’s personal narratives and critical writing. Kushner will appear at the 2022 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville on October 14-16.

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The Bucket List

In Marie Myung-Ok Lee’s The Evening Hero, a retired doctor confronts his long-buried past

In Marie Myung-Ok Lee’s The Evening Hero, a recently retired doctor reckons his regrets and blessings decades after immigrating to Minnesota from war-torn Korea. Lee will discuss The Evening Hero at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville on October 14-16.

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Something That Wants to Live

Lark Ascending finds kindness and hope in a bleak world

Silas House’s apocalyptic novel Lark Ascending is truly harrowing, yet even more deeply affecting and tender. House will appear at the 2022 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville on October 14-16 and at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on November 12.

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Big River

Rinker Buck navigates turbulent swells and history in Life on the Mississippi

Tennessee-based journalist Rinker Buck’s second book, Life on the Mississippi: An Epic American Adventure, presents an engrossing and often comical account of his flatboat journey down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Buck will appear at the 2022 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville on October 14-16.

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