Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

The Shocking Fulfillment of Beauty

Erin McGraw pulls no punches in her new collection of microstories

Don’t be fooled by the title or the sunny yellow cover of Erin McGraw’s new collection, Joy: And 52 Other Very Short Stories. In these snapshots of lives under extreme pressure, each narrator claims the spotlight to tell a powerful, often dark story. McGraw, who lives in Sewanee, will appear at Star Line Books in Chattanooga on March 6.

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A Good Nose

Jay McInerney’s Wine Reads gathers a fine cellar of literary pleasures

In Wine Reads: A Literary Anthology of Wine Writing, noted novelist and wine writer Jay McInerney, a former Nashville resident, collects twenty-seven of his favorite reflections on the grape—in both fiction and nonfiction.

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Coming of Age on Public-Access TV

Jeff Zentner’s latest YA novel is a B-movie-themed delight

Jeff Zentner’s new YA novel, Rayne & Delilah’s Midnite Matinee, is a coming-of-age story about two best friends and their monster-movie show in Jackson, Tennessee. Zentner will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on February 26.

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Armed and Dangerous

An American assassin hunts terrorists in Mark Greaney’s Mission Critical

Court Gentry, the hero of Mark Greaney’s Mission Critical, pursues bad guys all over the world in a bare-knuckled, uniquely American style. Greaney will discuss Mission Critical at Novel in Memphis on February 23, and at Parnassus Books in Nashville on February 28.

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Strikes and Gutters

Elizabeth McCracken’s Bowlaway is a genealogy set in a bowling alley

Elizabeth McCracken’s Bowlaway is an epic tale of love, grief, and candlepin bowling. McCracken will discuss her third novel with Ann Patchett at Parnassus Books in Nashville on February 22.

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Marsh Girl

Where the Crawdads Sing, Delia Owens’s first foray into fiction, is a bestseller

In Where the Crawdads Sing, the debut novel by veteran nature writer Delia Owens, a young girl is abandoned in the coastal marshlands of North Carolina. Owens will discuss the novel, a 2018 selection of Reese Witherspoon’s book club, at Parnassus Books in Nashville on February 18.

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