Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Welcome to Your New Eden

Bruce Holsinger discusses The Displacements, a novel of natural disaster

Bruce Holsinger’s new novel, The Displacements, imagines America’s first Category Six hurricane hitting South Florida and East Texas, uprooting millions of people. He answered questions from Chapter 16 about the way natural disasters exacerbate cultural divides but reveal everyday heroism. Holsinger will appear at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, October 14-16.

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You Are What You Cook

Michael Pollan talks with Chapter 16 about his groundbreaking new book, Cooked

FROM THE CHAPTER 16 ARCHIVE: In Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation, Michael Pollan apprentices himself to four culinary experts: a barbeque pit-master, a brazier, a baker, and a fermenter. By mastering their techniques, he writes, we can wrest the kitchen away from Big Food and reclaim both our food chain and our selves.  

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Quintessential Observer

Brandon Taylor on his Southern roots and the joys of analog

Brandon Taylor’s prizewinning story collection, Filthy Animals, has just been released in paperback. He spoke with Chapter 16 about his Southern roots, his Baptist upbringing, how his brief career as a scientist has influenced his writing, and why he has been increasingly drawn to analog technologies in our digitally obsessed world.

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Discovering the Soil All Over Again

An interview with Museum of Appalachia founder John Rice Irwin

When he died in January 2022, historian John Rice Irwin was described as the “guardian of Appalachia’s past.” In a 2008 interview, he talked with poet Jesse Graves about his family and his life’s work.

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Building Momentum

Michael Connelly discusses his popular detective series, his journalism background, and the future of the book

FROM THE CHAPTER 16 ARCHIVE: A former crime reporter for the Los Angeles Times, Michael Connelly discusses with Chapter 16 the slow death of local newspapers; his latest Harry Bosch installment, Nine Dragons; electronic books; and his popular legal-series protagonist, Mickey Haller. 

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Deconstructing a Dog

Bronwen Dickey talks with Chapter 16 about Pit Bull: The Battle over an American Icon

FROM THE CHAPTER 16 ARCHIVE: Whether you’re the adoring owner of a pittie or a person who thinks pit-bull bans make perfect sense, you are likely to find some of your assumptions overturned by Bronwen Dickey’s Pit Bull: The Battle over an American Icon. Dickey sifts through a great deal of history, science, and popular culture to uncover the truth about the dogs and the source of our extreme ideas about them. 

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