Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Current State

The stories in Matthew Baker’s Hybrid Creatures are perfectly tuned to the twenty-first century

Matthew Baker’s new story collection, Hybrid Creatures, tracks the quests of four brilliant, lonely misfits. Together they add up to something like a collage of one anguished archetype.

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Written in a Fever

Songwriter Billy Edd Wheeler’s Hotter Than a Pepper Sprout, is a beguiling tale of an astonishing life

In Hotter Than a Pepper Sprout, songwriter Billy Edd Wheeler chronicles his life from Depression-era Appalachia to Yale, New York, and Nashville. Told with charm and detail, his story celebrates creativity and a well-lived life

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A New Disequilibrium

Former Nashvillian David Arnold returns to Music City to launch his third YA novel

David Arnold’s depiction of teen life is heavily seasoned with dialogue in which teens have their say—in authentic, funny voices—about the absurdities of the now. Arnold will discuss The Strange Fascinations of Noah Hypnotik at Parnassus Books in Nashville on May 22 at 6:30 p.m. He will appear in conversation with novelists Courtney J. Stevens and Jeff Zentner.

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Her Father’s Words

Tara Westover’s memoir is an excruciating account of her escape from fundamentalism

Tara Westover’s Educated joins the ranks of fearless modern-day memoirs of abuse and adversity such as Cheryl Strayed’s Wild and Jeannette Walls’s The Glass Castle. Westover will appear at Lipscomb University in Nashville on May 21 at 6:30 p.m.

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How Much Damage Did I Do?

In Warlight, Michael Ondaatje delivers a literary mystery and a meditation on the power of memory

“In 1945 our parents went away and left us in the care of two men who may have been criminals.” Thus begins Michael Ondaatje’s newest novel, an engrossing literary mystery with echoes that hearken back to The English Patient. Ondaatje will discuss Warlight at Parnassus Books in Nashville on May 19.

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Learning the Value of a Dollar

Dollar General CEO Cal Turner Jr. traces the humble beginnings of a multi-billion-dollar company

In My Father’s Business, Cal Turner Jr. shares his family’s incredible success story and the leadership lessons he’s learned along the way. Turner will appear in conversation with Dave Ramsey on May 18 at Lipscomb University in Nashville.

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