Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

“Landscape Myopia”

Book Excerpt: Rodeo in Reverse

Oak Ridge poet Lindsey Alexander will read from her new collection, Rodeo in Reverse, at Union Ave. Books on September 27; at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 12-14; and at the Sundress Academy for the Arts in Knoxville on October 21 at 2 p.m. Rodeo in Reverse won the New Southern Voices Poetry Prize.

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“Dreaming We’re E.M. Bailey’s Dancers”

Book Excerpt: Speak, My Tongue

Chattanooga poet Carrie Meadows grew up around leather workers, doll makers, quilters, and tall-tale tellers who taught her the importance of straight stitches and good stories. On July 15 Meadows will give a reading at the Hexagon Brewing Company in Knoxville as part of the SAFTA Reading Series.

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“The Angel Makers and I Try to Bake a Cake”

Book Excerpt: Skin Splitting

Bryanna Licciardi is a graduate of Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, earned an M.F.A. in poetry from Emerson College, and is pursuing a Ph.D. in literacy studies from Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro. Skin Splitting is her first book.

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Celebrating a Good Cry

Nikki Giovanni’s most recent collection centers on joy and pain

Celebrated poet, children’s author, essayist, and activist Nikki Giovanni will deliver the Wilma Dykeman Stokely Memorial Lecture at the Bijou Theatre in Knoxville on April 5.

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“In Another Garden”

Book Excerpt: The Khristos Cantos

Michael E. Williams lives in Nashville and serves as Writer/Storyteller-in-Residence at Martin Methodist College. He will read from his new chapbook, The Khristos Cantos, at Poetry in the Boro in Murfreesboro on March 11 and at the Scarritt Bennett Center in Nashville on March 22.

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“Gastronomy”

Book Excerpt: The Naming of Strays

Erin Elizabeth Smith is the creative director at the Sundress Academy for the Arts in Knoxville and managing editor of Sundress Publications. She will give a free public reading on March 5 at the John C. Hodges Library on the campus of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

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