Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

“Eclipse (8/21/2017)”

Book Excerpt: Between Chance and Mercy

James E. Cherry is a native of Jackson, Tennessee. His books include the short fiction collection Still a Man and Other Stories and the novels Shadow of Light and Edge of the Wind. He is president of the Griot Collective of West Tennessee. A book launch event for his fourth poetry collection, Between Chance and Mercy, will be held at Turntable Coffee Counter in Jackson on April 13.

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“Ars Poetica”

Book Excerpt: Gatherer

Gatherer, forthcoming from Belle Point Press, is the debut collection by Todd Osborne, a poet and teacher from Nashville. Osborne’s poems have been featured in The Missouri Review, Tar River Poetry, and EcoTheo Review.

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“Hawk Says Finally”

Book Excerpt: The Intimacy of Spoons

Jim Minick is the author or editor of eight books, including Without Warning: The Tornado of Udall, Kansas, Fire Is Your Water, and The Blueberry Years: A Memoir of Farm and Family. He will appear at the 2024 Tennessee Mountain Writers Conference in Oak Ridge, April 4-6.

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John Kasper, Ezra Pound’s Biggest Fan

Book Excerpt: Dynamite Nashville: Unmasking the FBI, the KKK, and the Bombers Beyond Their Control

In Dynamite Nashville, Betsy Phillips delves into a series of unsolved bombings in the city between 1957 and 1960 and uncovers links to racist violence that spread across the South in the years that followed. Dynamite Nashville will be published by Third Man Books in July 2024.

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“Steve’s Short-Sleeve Shirt”

Book Excerpt: Obama’s Children

FROM THE CHAPTER 16 ARCHIVE: Earl S. Braggs is a UC Foundation and Battle Professor of English at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. His awards include the International Jack Kerouac Literary Prize and the Anhinga Poetry Prize. Obama’s Children is his 15th collection of poetry.

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Of Berries and Death

Book Excerpt: The Comfort of Crows

Margaret Renkl’s The Comfort of Crows is a literary devotional that moves through a year of beauty, joy, and grief in the teeming natural world of Renkl’s own backyard. The book includes 52 original color artworks by Billy Renkl and will be published by Spiegel & Grau in October 2023.

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