Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

A Liberation of Language and Lyric

A Beat Beyond collects a wealth of prose from poet Major Jackson

A Beat Beyond collects a wealth of notes, essays, reviews, and talks written by award-winning poet Major Jackson from 1993 to 2020. Jackson will appear in conversation with Destiny O. Birdsong at Parnassus Books in Nashville on September 1 and at the 2022 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville on October 14-16.

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Defenseless Against the Memory

Bobby C. Rogers brings depth and richness to his poetry’s West Tennessean setting

FROM THE CHAPTER 16 ARCHIVE: In Shift Work, West Tennessee poet Bobby C. Rogers mines the small-town front rooms, farmers’ fields, glass-strewn roadsides, and neglected cityscapes that suffuse the lives and memories of his poems’ many Tennessean characters. Rogers will appear at the 2022 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville on October 14-16.

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Outwardly Fine, Inwardly Lost

Katie Kitamura’s international novel hits close to home

Katie Kitamura’s novel Intimacies takes us inside the mind of a multilingual narrator who leaves much unsaid. Kitamura will appear at Sewanee: The University of the South on August 30.

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Shadowlands

Patrick Radden Keefe’s Rogues draws back the curtain on secret worlds

Rogues, a new collection of Patrick Radden Keefe’s magazine features, opens a curtain to reveal secret worlds. Keefe will discuss Rogues at the 2022 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville on October 14-16.

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Trying to Catch a Shadow

A new biography of Jim Thorpe separates the man from the legend

In Path Lit by Lightning, a new biography of Jim Thorpe, David Maraniss examines the inner resilience and outsized talents of a Native American who rose from obscurity to be heralded as the world’s greatest athlete. Maraniss will discuss Path Lit by Lightning at Parnassus Books in Nashville on August 25.

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Less than Total Recall

Julian R. Vaca revisits the 80s in an alternate universe plagued by lost memory

The Memory Index, the first book in a series by debut author Julian R. Vaca, explores an alternate 1987, where a disease has ravaged human memories and people rely on technology to preserve a sense of self. Vaca will discuss the book at North Wind Manor in Antioch on August 13.

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