Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Back to West Texas

Jeannette Brown’s The Illusion of Leaving follows its protagonist home to face her past

FROM THE CHAPTER 16 ARCHIVE: In Jeannette Brown’s The Illusion of Leaving, Jamie Wright leaves Silver Falls, Texas, gladly kicking the dust from her boots. But when her father’s impending death calls her back, Jamie must face her difficult past to imagine a different future. Jeannette Brown will take part in an author discussion, “Be the Final Writer,” at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on January 17.

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Poetry in Motion

A young girl connects with poetry during difficult times

Caroline Brooks DuBois’ second middle-grade novel tackles the healing power of poetry amid loss and destruction. DuBois will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on January 21.

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From the Other Side of the Woods

A young woman learns to fight for her adopted hometown in Moonrise Over New Jessup

In Jamila Minnicks’ debut novel, Moonrise Over New Jessup, Alice Young takes on a new life of love and tangled loyalties in an all-Black Alabama town embroiled in the escalating fight over desegregation.

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On Modern Farming

Arwen Donahue illustrates daily life on a Kentucky farm

Life moves rapidly in the 21st century, but Arwen Donahue invites readers to slow down and consider the small moments in Landings: A Crooked Creek Farm Year.

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How You’ll Remember You Were Made from Her

Sara Moore Wagner gives voice to the addict mother in Hillbilly Madonna

In Hillbilly Madonna, Sara Moore Wagner infuses her poems of Appalachian family trauma with deep compassion and an unusual focus on women’s experiences of addiction.

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Out of the Shadows of History

Novelist Patricia L. Hudson brings Rebecca Boone, Daniel’s wife, to the fore

Rebecca Boone, wife of the famous frontiersman Daniel Boone, is front and center, fully alive and endlessly compelling, in Patricia L. Hudson’s novel Traces.

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