Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

The Year of Living Surreally

For Robyn Hitchcock, the psychedelic call of 1967 inspired a lifetime of music

Robyn Hitchcock’s memoir 1967 tells the story of a time, a place, a music — and how they fired his imagination. Hitchcock will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on July 18.

Read more

Making a New Sun

Saeed Jones writes poetry of grief and survival

FROM THE CHAPTER 16 ARCHIVE: Alive at the End of the World is the latest apocalyptic collection of poetry from Memphis native Saeed Jones. 

Read more

The Whole Truth

Novelist Jill Ciment reconsiders her own story

When novelist Jill Ciment was 17, she began a relationship with her art teacher, a married man 30 years her senior. Their love affair became a marriage that lasted until her husband’s death more than four decades later. Ciment wrote about their romance in her 1996 memoir, Half a Life. In a new book, Consent, Ciment reconsiders their story. Ciment will discuss the book with Ann Patchett at Parnassus Books in Nashville on June 27.

Read more

A Marriage of History and Romance

Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin offers an intimate perspective on a dramatic decade

In An Unfinished Love Story, historian Doris Kearns Goodwin remembers her long marriage to speechwriter and presidential advisor Richard Goodwin and explores the complex symbiosis of the two administrations they championed. Doris Kearns Goodwin will discuss the book with Jon Meacham at Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville on June 18.

Read more

That Eerie Southern Magic

Twin sisters unravel a town’s haunting folklore in The Pecan Children

In The Pecan Children, the two authors behind the pen name Quinn Connor capture the eerie magic of a small Southern town and the twin sisters at the center of its spell. Robyn Barrow and Alexandra Cronin will appear at Novel in Memphis on June 11.

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