Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

This Cult of Niceness

Lorraine López sends up the foibles of arts faculty in Postcards from the Gerund State

Lorraine M. López’s sharply funny collection of linked short stories, Postcards from the Gerund State, focuses on a group of women faculty navigating life and work at a small conservative women’s college.

Read more

An Illuminated Mind

Oblivion Banjo surveys the long career of poet Charles Wright

Tennessee native and former U.S. Poet Laureate Charles Wright is sometimes described as worldly, even cosmic, in his subject matter, and yet his poems are often grounded in everyday reality and memories of his home state. Oblivion Banjo brings together the poet’s own selection of work from a career spanning nearly half a century.

Read more

Ah, California

Spenser heads to Los Angeles in Robert B. Parker’s Angel Eyes, Ace Atkins’ eighth novel in the iconic series

When Spenser goes west in search of a missing young actress in Ace Atkins’ Robert B. Parker’s Angel Eyes, the Boston PI roams the dark streets of Raymond Chandler and noir gumshoes, finding clues amid echoes of his own past.

Read more

Finding Poetry in Nature

Poets Rose McLarney and Laura-Gray Street, with naturalist L.L. Gaddy, celebrate the Southern biosphere

A Literary Field Guide to Southern Appalachia presents the natural variety of the mountain South through poetry and imagery created by 67 of the region’s artists.

Read more

No Atheists in the Bullpen

Barry Zito was the hottest, highest-paid pitcher in the major leagues. So why did he feel so lost?

Barry Zito’s memoir, Curveball, recounts the star pitcher’s triumph, failure, and long spiritual quest.

Read more

Redemption Story

Free Cyntoia recounts a journey from victim to activist

At 16, Cyntoia Brown-Long was imprisoned for murdering a much older man. Her memoir, Free Cyntoia, tells the story of her awakening to her own history of abuse and her efforts to save other young women from the horrors of trafficking.

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