Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

A Wayfaring Experiment in Democracy

Kim Trevathan revisits the Tennessee River from a new direction

In Against the Current: Paddling Upstream on the Tennessee River, Maryville College professor and nature writer Kim Trevathan travels the length of the waterway a second time to discover “how the river had changed in twenty years, and how the passing of two decades had changed me.” Trevathan will discuss Against the Current at a virtual event hosted by Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on February 25.

Read more

A Long, Strange Trip

My Year Abroad traces an ordinary young man’s journey to a weird hell and back

My Year Abroad, Chang-rae Lee’s sixth novel, is an exuberant — and strange — coming-of-age tale. Lee will discuss the book with Ann Patchett at a virtual event hosted by Parnassus Books in Nashville on February 19.

Read more

Streams of Consciousness

Travel writer Jedidiah Jenkins trades in cross-continental treks to map a more personal terrain.

In Like Streams to the Ocean, travel writer and Instagram personality Jedidiah Jenkins turns his energetic gaze to the interior landscapes we map between childhood and death. Jenkins will appear at a virtual event hosted by Parnassus Books in Nashville on February 18.

Read more

Decency at the End of the World

David Arnold’s The Electric Kingdom finds beauty in the darkness

David Arnold, author of the acclaimed YA novels Mosquitoland, The Strange Fascinations of Noah Hypnotik, and Kids of Appetite, returns with The Electric Kingdom, an achingly beautiful and timely book that transcends simple classification. Arnold will discuss The Electric Kingdom at a virtual event hosted by Parnassus Books in Nashville on February 11.

Read more

The Energy Hiding in Our Hearts

Robert Gipe’s Appalachian trilogy concludes with Pop: An Illustrated Novel

“Why can’t we tell our own stories?” asks the young hero of Pop: An Illustrated Novel, the final installment of Robert Gipe’s groundbreaking Canard County trilogy. Amid the weight of the past and poverty, the 2016 presidential election, sexual assault, and an invading mess of movie people, his nuanced characters do exactly that — in fine prose and disarmingly simple drawings.

Read more

Anything So Dangerous and Painful as Hope

Alan Gratz’s Ground Zero contrasts the terrors of 9/11 with a day in war-torn Afghanistan

In Ground Zero, possibly his most heart-wrenching middle-grade book yet, Knoxville native Alan Gratz weaves the terror of 9/11 and the pain of the ongoing war in Afghanistan into a story whose relentless pace and nonstop suspense ensure readers feel every bit of it. Gratz will discuss Ground Zero at a virtual event hosted by Parnassus Books in Nashville on February 12.

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