Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

History Twisting Up Bright and Green

Poets Jesse Graves and William Wright merge perspectives in Specter Mountain

Throughout Specter Mountain, Jesse Graves and William Wright’s collaborative poetry collection, the mountain landscape itself emerges as a powerful, haunting source of revelation. The result is a unique contribution to Appalachian literature.

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Permission Slip

Meg Wolitzer’s The Female Persuasion depicts a feminist tussle between generations

When a recent college graduate goes to work for Faith Frank, a feminist legend, she undergoes an initiation into her mentor’s world-and her own conscience. Meg Wolitzer will discuss The Female Persuasion at Parnassus Books in Nashville on April 19.

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“Darwin’s Breath”

Book Excerpt: Darwin’s Breath

Connie Jordan Green lives on a farm in Loudon County, where her column for the Loudon County News Herald is in its fortieth year. She is the author of four poetry collections and will read from the newest, Darwin’s Breath at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on April 15.

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The Arc of Memphis History

In a new essay collection, Aram Goudsouzian and Charles W. McKinney Jr. consider race relations in the Bluff City

In An Unseen Light: Black Struggles for Freedom in Memphis, Tennessee, a collection of scholarly essays, editors Aram Goudsouzian and Charles W. McKinney Jr. look at the Bluff City from emancipation through the turbulent 1960s and into the present. They will discuss An Unseen Light at two Memphis events: at the National Civil Rights Museum on April 17 and Novel on May 15.

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Forever Needing Something Stronger

Michal Farris Smith’s protagonist in The Fighter is shattered but persistent

In The Fighter, Michael Farris Smith’s latest tale of human struggle in the Mississippi Delta, brawler Jack Boucher is drowning in debt, dodging enemies, and losing the battle against his own fractured memory. Smith will appear at Novel in Memphis on April 16, and at Parnassus Books in Nashville on April 17.

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Calling All Whuffos

Tracy Barrett’s new YA novel explores the ups and downs of skydiving

Through a tale of skydiving, Tracy Barrett’s new YA novel, Freefall Summer, explores the ins and outs of growing up. Barrett will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on April 14.

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