Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

The Darkness at the Door

Brantley Hargrove tells the story of a storm-chasing, tornado-catching legend

Tim Samaras, writes Brantley Hargrove in The Man Who Caught the Storm, “accomplished meteorology’s equivalent to the moon landing.” Hargrove will appear at the 2018 Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 12-14.

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Seeing with Twenty-First-Century Eyes

Nell Painter, a renowned historian, finds a new identity as an artist

In her memoir, Old in Art School: A Memoir of Starting Over, Nell Painter writes about learning to see art, and herself, in new ways. Painter will appear at the 2018 Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 12-14.

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Wrong About Appalachia

Elizabeth Catte deconstructs J.D. Vance’s view of a misunderstood region

Elizabeth Catte’s What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia eviscerates the view of Appalachia as a dysfunctional region populated exclusively by hard-headed white folks. Catte will discuss What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia at the East Tennessee History Center in Knoxville on August 30.

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Bally Girl

In The Electric Woman, Tessa Fontaine learns about love and fear at the sideshow

Tessa Fontaine’s struggle against her fears, both physical and emotional, is at the center of her poignant, ultimately life-affirming memoir, The Electric Woman: A Memoir in Death-Defying Acts. Tessa Fontaine will discuss The Electric Woman at the 2018 Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 12-14.

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Arcs of Hope and Tragedy

Frye Gaillard delivers a sprawling, panoramic history of the 1960s

Frye Gaillard’s A Hard Rain pulls the reader into the 1960s, not just to witness its momentous events, but to feel its idealism and disenchantment. Gaillard will appear at the 2018 Southern Festival of Books, held October 12-14 at Legislative Plaza and the Nashville Public Library. Festival events are free and open to the public.

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“Give Me My Daily Wickedness”

Celebrated novelist Gish Jen talks with Chapter 16 about truth-telling and the project of fiction

A prolific writer known for exploring multiculturalism with keen intelligence, grace, and humor, Gish Jen is the author of four novels, a short-story volume, and, most recently, a nonfiction book created from the talks she gave at Harvard University in 2012 as part of the William E. Massey Sr. Lectures in the History of American Civilization.

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