Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Guided by a Star

Novelist Robert Morgan follows two runaway slaves who are Chasing the North Star to freedom

April 1, 2016 In Chasing the North Star Robert Morgan tells a riveting tale of courage and survival as two slaves escape from South Carolina and seek their freedom in the North. Morgan will appear at the Bijou Theatre in Knoxville on April 7, 2016, at 7 p.m. and at Chattanooga State Community College at several events held April 12-15, 2016, in connection with the Writers@Work series.

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Charleston Noir

David Burnsworth’s second thriller poses a new challenge for Brack Pelton, an ex-Marine with a penchant for vanquishing bad guys

March 31, 2016 Brack Pelton, an Afghanistan War vet turned tiki-bar owner, is drawn into a murder investigation in David Burnsworth’s second thriller, Burning Heat. Burnsworth will appear at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Chattanooga on April 8, 2016, at 5 p.m. and at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Knoxville on April 9, 2016, at 2 p.m.

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Forsaking All Others

With Hide, Matthew Griffin has written a love story for the ages

March 23, 2016 Matthew Griffin’s debut novel comes to us at a pivot point in our national history. But Hide can’t be reduced to a social-justice tale, or one of love between gay men. It’s a story about the kind of love, gay or straight, that endures beyond youth, strength, and memory. Griffin will appear at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on March 30, 2016, at 6 p.m.

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A Theory of Love and History

In fiction and essays, Julian Barnes proves that truth is multiple

March 21, 2016 Reading Julian Barnes is a paradoxical pleasure: the author makes clear, in book after book, that literature provides no reassurances, no uncanny access to wisdom or happiness, no affirmation to troubled readers—and yet the experience of reading his work is strangely comforting. Now seventy, Barnes keeps exploring profound questions and continues to produce brilliantly conflicting answers. He will give a free public reading at Vanderbilt University’s Ingram Hall in Nashville on March 23, 2016, at 6:30 p.m.

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A Perfect Marriage, Interrupted

In a new thriller, Nashville’s J.T. Ellison plots the unlikely disappearance of a golden-boy med student and the ensuing hell for his young wife

March 15, 2016 Aubrey and Josh Hamilton have been inseparable since they were tweens, and life is looking pretty good for them until Josh mysteriously disappears, and authorities finger Aubrey as the suspect. J.T. Ellison will discuss her new standalone mystery, No One Knows, at Parnassus Books in Nashville on March 22, 2016, at 6:30 p.m.

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If the Ghosts Don’t Get Her, the Coon Suppers Might

Jeff Crook’s acerbic crime-scene photographer is forced by fate, and restless spirits, to solve another mystery

March 4, 2016 In Jeff Crook’s The Covenant, a recovering heroin addict with a less-than-steady job as a crime-scene photographer can’t afford to turn down work. But when she stumbles across a murder that local police seem disinclined to solve, she starts to wish she’d never left Memphis.

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