Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

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.

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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.

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Forging an Autonomous Path

Music critic Ann Powers shows us how Joni Mitchell made her own way

Ann Powers’ Traveling: On the Path of Joni Mitchell weaves research, reportage, and analysis to tell the iconic singer-songwriter’s story in a conversational way. Powers will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on June 12.

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This World of Broken Sins

A small-town deputy comes to terms with his past as he tries to save an innocent man

In Henry Wise’s debut novel Holy City, a tormented police officer investigates a murder that digs up secrets the county would rather keep buried. Wise will appear at Novel in Memphis on June 2.

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Loving Country

Willie, Waylon, and the Boys tells the stories of Nashville’s quintessential outsiders

The music scene in Nashville is tricky and hard to describe until you figure out how obsessed the city is with the relationship between conformity and rebellion. Brian Fairbanks provides plenty of detail about the full-cylinder lives of country music iconoclasts Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, and Waylon Jennings in Willie, Waylon, and the Boys: How Nashville Outsiders Changed Country Music Forever.

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