Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

A Mystery Set to Music

Parton and Patterson tell a Nashville story in Run, Rose, Run

In Run, Rose, Run, Dolly Parton and James Patterson collaborate on a story about a frightened young woman escaping a mysterious menace while pursuing a career as a country music singer/songwriter.

Read more

Doing the Work

Nikky Finney’s fifth poetry collection is an essential collage of life and art

Love Child’s Hotbed of Occasional Poetry, Nikky Finney’s first new collection in nearly 10 years, demonstrates how the National Book Award-winning poet continues to push herself and expand our idea of poetry’s scope. Finney will appear at the 2022 Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, March 24-27.

Read more

Travel and Disappearance

Kiese Laymon’s novel Long Division operates at the intersection of language and time

The reissue of Kiese Laymon’s Long Division echoes a familiar Black church precept of doing your first works over. In this new iteration of his 2013 debut novel, Laymon separates the story into two books, or testaments, each centered around 14-year-old Citoyen “City” Coldson.

Read more

A Troubled South

Lee Cole’s Groundskeeping considers love, class, and identity

In Lee Cole’s debut novel Groundskeeping, Owen returns to his hometown in Kentucky to work as a groundskeeper at a small college where he enrolls in a creative writing course. Cole will discuss Groundskeeping at Parnassus Books in Nashville on March 3.

Read more

Parting Shot

Ace Atkins pens his tenth installment in an iconic detective series

Spenser, a hard-punching, Shakespeare-quoting private eye created over 50 years ago by Robert B. Parker, is hired to safeguard a congresswoman chased by homegrown terrorists in Robert B. Parker’s Bye Bye Baby, the tenth installment in the iconic series from the pen of Ace Atkins.

Read more

Double the Thrills

Greaney serves up twice the action in a Gray Man prequel, Sierra Six

There is twice the action at hand for fans of Mark Greaney’s Gray Man as the covert operative chases down a ghost from his past in the new thriller Sierra Six. Greaney will celebrate the launch of Sierra Six at Novel in Memphis on February 19.

Read more
TAKE THE SHORT READER SURVEY! CHAPTER 16 SURVEYOR SURVEYING