Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

A More Perfect Chaos

Poet Sarah Gorham considers the imperfect world in Study in Perfect

February 23, 2015 The essays in Sarah Gorham’s Study in Perfect wander through a disparate collection of subjects, from poisonous mushrooms to the nature of selfishness, offering a reminder that amid the chaos of living, we all desire a life more nearly perfect. Gorham will appear at Vanderbilt University in Nashville on February 26, 2015, at 7 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

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“Gramps Stayed Drunk on Jazz”

January 30, 2015 Christian Anton Gerard’s first book of poems is Wilmot Here, Collect For Stella. His work has appeared in storySouth, Post Road, Thrush, Orion, B-O-D-Y, and The Rumpus, among others. He holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and lives in Fort Smith, Arkansas, where he’s an assistant professor at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith. He will give a free public reading at the University of Tennessee’s Hodges Library in Knoxville on February 2, 2015, at 7 p.m.

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“In the Lowlands”

January 29, 2015 Heather Dobbins’s work has appeared in Beloit Poetry Review, The Rumpus, The Southern Poetry Anthology (Tennessee), and TriQuarterly Review, among others. She graduated from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and earned an M.F.A. in creative writing from Bennington College. She will appear at the University of Tennessee’s Hodges Library in Knoxville on February 2, 2015, at 7 p.m. and at East Tennessee State University’s Ball Hall Auditorium in Johnson City on February 3, 2015, at 7 p.m. Both events are free and open to the public.

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A Voice Like Thunder

Beth Bachmann’s latest poetry collection explores the ramifications of war

January 26, 2015 In her new collection, Do Not Rise, Nashville poet Beth Bachmann writes about war and its aftermath with unflinching insight. Bachmann will read from her work on January 29, 2015, at 7 p. m. on the Vanderbilt University campus in Nashville. The event, which also includes a reading by Vanderbilt novelist Tony Earley, is free and open to the public.

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What Is Not Missing Is Light

January 16, 2015 Bridgette Bates’s poems have appeared in Boston Review, Fence, jubilat, VERSE, and elsewhere. The recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship and a “Discovery” Prize, she is a graduate of the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Originally from Nashville, she lives in Los Angeles where she writes for the Library Foundation of Los Angeles and is a features contributor to Kirkus Reviews. She will read from her new collection, What Is Not Missing is Light, at Parnassus Books in Nashville on January 22, 2015, at 6:30 p.m.

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What Can Be Said About the South

In Poems of the American South, David Biespiel assembles some of the best poets writing from or about this region

December 8, 2014 Poems of the American South, edited by David Biespiel, displays the rich poetic tradition of the South. From race to rattlesnakes, each poem reveals complicated truths about this region of the United States.

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