Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Looking Back on 50 Years of Tennessee Books

50 Books / HT50, Part 3: 1991-1994

The third installment in our 50 Books / HT50 project features books from the first half of the 1990s, a period that saw the opening of the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga, a record-breaking blizzard in East Tennessee, and the election of a Tennessean, Al Gore, to the vice presidency.

Read more

A Memphis Story

Steve Stern’s The Frozen Rabbi is an absurd, exuberant, razor-sharp family saga

Steve Stern’s 2010 novel The Frozen Rabbi follows the travels and travails of a Jewish family and their extraordinary heirloom. Stern will appear at the 2023 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville on October 21-22.

Read more

The Vernacular of Beyond

Author and naturalist Janisse Ray advocates for wildness

In books like Wild Spectacle and Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, Georgia author, naturalist, author, and farmer Janisse Ray communicates profound reverence for the profuse complexity within our world’s ecosystems. Ray will be the keynote speaker at the MTSU Write Conference in Murfreesboro on October 7.

Read more

The Work of Secrecy

The Girls of Atomic City tells the stories of women in wartime Oak Ridge

Denise Kiernan’s 2013 book The Girls of Atomic City chronicles the experiences of women working in the secrecy-shrouded town of Oak Ridge during WWII. The author will join Jane Marcellus to discuss the book on Facebook Live on September 19.

Read more

Southern Festival of Books Announces 2023 Lineup of Award-Winning Authors, Poets, and Literary Legends

More than 150 authors to appear for panels, book signings, readings, and discussions

Timothy Egan, Terrance Hayes, Ann Patchett, Lee Smith, and Etaf Rum are just a few of the authors on the roster for the 35th annual Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville on October 21-22. Friday, October 20, will be a Student Day, with featured authors including Carl Hiaasen.

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