Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Roz’s Return

Peter Brown reunites young readers with a beloved character in The Wild Robot Escapes

Author-illustrator Peter Brown returns to Parnassus Books on March 22 to discuss his new middle-grade novel, The Wild Robot Escapes, the much-anticipated sequel to 2016’s The Wild Robot.

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Us Just Killing Ourselves

Robert Gipe’s Weedeater portrays a coal town overrun with opioids

Robert Gipe’s new illustrated novel, Weedeater, brings back Dawn Jewell, the unforgettable protagonist of Trampoline, and adds a second narrator: the laconic title character, a lawn worker who watches the opioid crisis roll through coal country.

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Strange Signals

Woody Skinner’s A Thousand Distant Radios tunes into odd frequencies

In his debut story collection, A Thousand Distant Radios, Woody Skinner captures the absurdity of contemporary life with spare language and offbeat humor. Skinner will appear at Novel in Memphis on March 18.

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What Truths We Can Stomach

The Cadaver King and The Country Dentist tells the story of two flawed trial experts

In The Cadaver King and The Country Dentist, Radley Balko and Tucker Carrington delve into the tangled history of two scientific “experts” in the Mississippi court system. Balko and Carrington will discuss The Cadaver King and The Country Dentist at Parnassus Books in Nashville on March 10 at 2 p.m.

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Trading Mystery for Intrigue

Body Farm co-author Jon Jefferson raises the stakes with a new thriller, Wave of Terror

Jon Jefferson, half the mystery-writing team known collectively as Jefferson Bass, switches gears from forensic mystery to scientific intrigue in his new novel, Wave of Terror. Jefferson will appear at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on March 4, at Parnassus Books in Nashville on March 7, and at Star Line Books in Chattanooga on March 8.

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The Long Arc of History

Minrose Gwin’s new novel tells a tale of racism in the aftermath of natural disaster

On April 5, 1936, a massive tornado producing winds greater than 300 miles per hour destroyed half the city of Tupelo, Mississippi, in a matter of minutes, a story Tupelo native Minrose Gwin tells in her latest novel, Promise. Gwin will appear at Novel in Memphis on February 27.

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