Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Healing the Mother Wound

Sarai Johnson’s debut novel is a deeply moving, multigenerational exploration of womanhood and motherhood

Sarai Johnson’s debut novel, Grown Women, is an eloquent story of multiple generations of Black women navigating their lives against a nonlinear backdrop of American motherhood.

Read more

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Nashvillian

Liz Riggs’ debut novel looks at a creative woman’s struggle to find herself

With her debut novel, Lo Fi, Liz Riggs proves that Nashville can hold its own along with New York, L.A., or Boston when it comes to locales where young artists go to find themselves. Riggs will discuss Lo Fi at Parnassus Books in Nashville on July 31.

Read more

He Would’ve Said Goodbye

A madcap murder investigation helps a family cope with a loved one’s death in Fowl Play

“It’s kinda hard to hunt for a murderer,” declares young Chloe Alvarez, “when you don’t want to remember that a person is dead.” Chloe is the narrator and main character of Nashville writer Kristin O’Donnell Tubb’s latest middle-grade novel, Fowl Play, and she is desperate to know what really happened to her Uncle Will. Fowl Play is scheduled for release on July 30, and a launch event will be held at the Nashville Zoo at Grassmere on August 2.

Read more

To Live on This Margin of Earth

Three debut poetry collections highlight the originality of their authors’ visions

Recently published debut poetry collections from Tara M. Stringfellow, Ben Groner III, and Stephanie Choi invite us into the particulars of their authors’ imaginative worlds.

Read more

Explosive Revelations

Betsy Phillips’ Dynamite Nashville is a raucous, engrossing investigation of white supremacist violence

In Dynamite Nashville, Betsy Phillips plunges into the world of white supremacist violence in Nashville during the civil rights era. Phillips will discuss the book at the Tennessee State Museum on July 13.

Read more

Memphis Noir

Ace Atkins creates an unforgettable detective and an intimate portrait of Memphis in Don’t Let the Devil Ride

Ace Atkins, known for his Quinn Colson novels, has crafted a classic detective tale in Don’t Let the Devil Ride, an international thriller solidly anchored in Memphis. Atkins will appear at Novel in Memphis on June 26 and in an online discussion with Chapter 16’s Michael Ray Taylor on July 16.

Read more
TAKE THE SHORT READER SURVEY! CHAPTER 16 SURVEYOR SURVEYING