Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Dream or Nightmare?

Molly McGhee’s debut novel takes a surreal look at modern employment

In her debut novel, Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind, Molly McGhee considers harsh economic realities through a dream-like lens. McGhee will appear at The Bookshop in Nashville on November 20.

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Descent into Freedom

Jesmyn Ward’s Let Us Descend is a chronicle of survival and liberation

Following her National Book Award-winning 2017 novel, Sing Unburied, Sing, Jesmyn Ward returns with Let Us Descend, the story of an enslaved young woman’s journey toward liberation.

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A Feeling Not Unlike Happiness

Claire Keegan’s stories chart the good and bad of romantic relationships

In Claire Keegan’s new story collection So Late in the Day, women must learn to navigate unpredictable eruptions of the male ego. Keegan will appear at two ticketed events in Nashville, at Parnassus Books on October 28 and Montgomery Bell Academy on October 30.

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Looking for Home

Kelsey Norris’ debut story collection resonates with unanswered questions

Kelsey Norris’ debut story collection, House Gone Quiet, chronicles characters at a turning point. Norris will appear at the 2023 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville on October 21-22.

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An Unwilling Vessel

In Erica Waters’ All That Consumes Us, something is rotten in elite academia

In All That Consumes Us, Erica Waters uses the supernatural to critique prestigious colleges’ very real, often elitist obsession with the past. Waters will discuss the book at Parnassus Books in Nashville on October 18.

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The End of Tennessee as We Know It

David Wesley Williams pens a post-apocalyptic vision of the Volunteer State

FROM THE CHAPTER 16 ARCHIVE: David Wesley Williams takes readers on a post-apocalyptic journey from Nashville to Memphis in his latest novel, the rambunctious and rollicking Everybody Knows. Williams will appear at the 2023 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville on October 21-22.

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