Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Saying What You Want to Say in Your Own Way

Charles Wright talks about literary style, Southern writing, and how to get into graduate school without really trying

April 26, 2013 Acclaimed poet Charles Wright, who hails from Kingsport, Tennessee, recently talked with Georgetown’s Vox Populi about his past work as a young writer. He explained how he started out as a history major at Davidson and how he also flew under the radar when aiming for one of the country’s top graduate writing programs:

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“Wedding”

April 25, 2013 Lisa Dordal holds a Master of Divinity and a Master of Fine Arts in poetry, both from Vanderbilt University, where she currently teaches part-time in the English department. Her poetry has appeared in a variety of journals and anthologies, including Cave Wall, Sugar House, The Sow’s Ear Poetry Review, Sinister Wisdom, The Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, Milk and Honey: A Celebration of Jewish Lesbian Poetry (A Midsummer Night’s Press, 2011), and The Southern Poetry Anthology (Texas Review Press, 2013), among others. Dordal lives in Nashville with her partner, Laurie, and their two retired greyhounds. She will read from Commemoration on April 25 at 7 p.m. in the Poet’s Corner series at the Scarritt-Bennett Center in Nashville.

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“Cardinal”

April 11, 2013 Jeff Daniel Marion, a native of Rogersville, taught English and creative writing at Carson-Newman University for over thirty-five years. There he was poet-in-residence, director of the Appalachian Center, and editor of Mossy Creek Reader. He has published nine poetry collections, four chapbooks, and a children’s book, Hello, Crow. Poems have appeared in a variety of journals and anthologies, including The Southern Review, Shenandoah, Southern Poetry Review and Appalachian Heritage, among others. His honors include the 2002 Outstanding Contribution to Appalachian Literature Award, the 2005 Educational Service to Appalachia Award, and the 2011 James Still Award for Writing about the Appalachian South. In 2007 he was inducted into the East Tennessee Writers Hall of Fame. Marion lives in Knoxville with his wife, poet and editor poet Linda Parsons Marion. On April 11 and 12, Carson-Newman University will host the Jeff Daniel Marion Festival. Read more about it—and the many reasons for honoring Marion—in an essay by Jesse Graves, here.

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Hymns to Passion

Marilyn Kallet’s new poems explore the lighter and darker sides of love

April 8, 2013 Dante, Beatrice, and Baudelaire help Marilyn Kallet explore modern love in her new poetry collection, The Love That Moves Me. In connection with the book’s launch, Kallet will give several readings in Knoxville: on April 10 in the Goins Buidling Auditorium at Pellissippi State Community College, on April 15 at the Hodges Library Auditorium on the University of Tennessee campus, and on April 21 at Union Ave. Books. Kallet will share the PSCC and UT readings with poet Arthur Smith. Click here for event details.

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Diverse Voices

Debut collections from poets Will Schutt and Joshua Robbins strike distinctly different tones

April 5, 2013 Debut collections from two acclaimed Tennessee poets display a healthy diversity of sensibilities in contemporary American poetry. Will Schutt’s Westerly and Joshua Robbins’s Praise Nothing deliver elegantly crafted verse and moving insight, but their perspectives are vastly different. Joshua Robbins will appear at Union Ave Books in Knoxville on April 7 at 3 p.m. He and Will Schutt will appear together at Parnassus Books in Nashville on April 13 at 2 p.m.

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A Risk Worth Taking

Jesse Graves writes poems about the things he cares most about

March 12, 2013 Jesse Graves’s first poetry collection, Tennessee Landscape with Blighted Pine, has earned high acclaim, including the Appalachian Writers Association Book of the Year Award in poetry and the Weatherford Award, presented annually by Berea College and the Appalachian Studies Association. Such accolades are no surprise to those who have worked with Graves and followed his career. As novelist Ron Rash notes, “These poems have the music, wisdom, and singular voice of a talent fully realized, and make abundantly clear that Jesse Graves is one of America’s finest young poets.” Today Graves talks with Chapter 16 about writing, teaching, and his deep roots in Sharp’s Chapel, Tennessee.

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