Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

The Heart in Ruins

Kristen Radtke’s Imagine Wanting Only This weaves a haunting memoir around abandoned spaces

In Imagine Wanting Only This, a graphic work of nonfiction that is part personal memoir and part travelogue of urban ruins, Kristen Radtke combines brilliant comic art with poetic prose. Radtke will appear at the 2017 Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 13-15.

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Black and White and Red All Over?

Thomas J. Hrach shows how better reporting on race reduced rioting in the 1960s

In his new book, The Riot Report and the News, Thomas J. Hrach, an associate professor of journalism at the University of Memphis, shows how rapidly diversifying newsrooms in the 1960s had revolutionary consequences for the way news is reported.

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Finding Roots in Rubble

Preparing for the birth of her first child, Hannah Palmer tries to find her own childhood

When Hannah Palmer returns to her home town, she finds that Atlanta has been forever changed by the “world’s busiest airport.” Part personal memoir, part investigative journalism, Flight Path is a compelling read for anyone who lives in a rapidly-growing city. Palmer will appear at the 2017 Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 13-15.

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Booty, Booty, Booty, Booty, Rockin’ Everywhere

Ann Powers examines popular music’s propensity for sexual healing

In her new book, Good Booty: Love and Sex, Black and White, Body and Soul in American Music, Ann Powers details the history of erotic power in American popular music. Powers will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on August 17 at 6:30 p.m.

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When Piggly-Wiggly Met Pigskin

Wylie McLallen recovers the forgotten history of football in Memphis

In Tigers by the River, Wylie McLallen tells the tale of the first Memphis Tigers, a professional football squad of the late 1920s and early 1930s.

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When Literature is a Lifeline

At nineteen, Clay Byars became a writer after a stroke left him unable to talk

In Will & I, Sewanee alum Clay Byars joins the ranks of memorable memoirists facing disability with remarkable courage. He will discuss Will & I at Parnassus Books in Nashville on July 22 at 2 p.m.

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