Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

“Hawk Says Finally”

Book Excerpt: The Intimacy of Spoons

Jim Minick is the author or editor of eight books, including Without Warning: The Tornado of Udall, Kansas, Fire Is Your Water, and The Blueberry Years: A Memoir of Farm and Family. He will appear at the 2024 Tennessee Mountain Writers Conference in Oak Ridge, April 4-6.

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In the Presence of the Unseen

Poet Jane Hicks uncovers hidden worlds in The Safety of Small Things

Throughout East Tennessee poet Jane Hicks’ stunning new collection, The Safety of Small Things, the unseen elements of our lives reveal themselves in vibrant, insistent ways. With masterful discernment, Hicks enables us to sense the many-layered truths contained in each moment and to marvel at their resonance. 

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“Steve’s Short-Sleeve Shirt”

Book Excerpt: Obama’s Children

FROM THE CHAPTER 16 ARCHIVE: Earl S. Braggs is a UC Foundation and Battle Professor of English at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. His awards include the International Jack Kerouac Literary Prize and the Anhinga Poetry Prize. Obama’s Children is his 15th collection of poetry.

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“To the Aliens, Letter #4”

Book Excerpt: Star-Tent: A Triptych

Amie Whittemore was the 2020-2021 Poet Laureate of Murfreesboro and an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow. She teaches at Middle Tennessee State University, where she directs MTSU Write.

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A Lifelong Task

Poet Alicia Ostriker talks to Chapter 16 about wrestling with literary and cultural tradition

FROM THE CHAPTER 16 ARCHIVE: An author of both groundbreaking criticism and acclaimed poetry, Alicia Ostriker has devoted much of her work to a feminist transformation of literary and cultural tradition. Whether arguing for recognition of women’s poetry as a genre in its own right or recasting the stories of the Bible from a feminist perspective, Ostriker is a radical with a deep respect for her roots. 

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“Daffodils”

Book Excerpt: What Bends Us Blue

FROM THE CHAPTER 16 ARCHIVE: Former Knoxvillian Tom Lombardo is a poet, essayist, and freelance medical writer who lives in Midtown Atlanta. His poems have appeared in Southern Poetry Review, Ambit, Hampden-Sydney Poetry Review, and New York Quarterly, among others. He is the editor of an anthology, After Shocks: The Poetry of Recovery for Life Shattering Events, and is the poetry series editor for Press 53. His M.F.A. is from Queens University of Charlotte. 

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