Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Supremes and Extremes

Daniel Kiel analyzes race, citizenship, and education through the lenses of Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas

In The Transition, University of Memphis law professor Daniel Kiel tracks the experiences and ideas of the first two Black Supreme Court justices, Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas. Kiel will discuss the book at Novel in Memphis on April 13.

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Remembrances of Knoxville Past

Linda Behrend revives Anne Armstrong’s stories of her adopted hometown in the late 1800s

Anne Wetzell Armstrong’s reminiscences of Knoxville at the end of the 19th century have been edited by Linda Behrend in the newly published Of Time and Knoxville: Fragment of an Autobiography. Behrend will discuss Armstrong’s life and memoir at Historic Westwood in Knoxville on April 13.

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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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Pack Man

Michael Nelson analyzes FDR’s ill-fated court-packing plan of 1937

In Vaulting Ambition, Michael Nelson explains the flawed decisions that led to one of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s greatest missteps: his 1937 plan to add new justices to the Supreme Court. Nelson will appear in conversation with Joe Birch at Novel in Memphis on March 5.

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A March to the Mountaintop

Alice Faye Duncan’s picture book tells the story of MLK’s last days in Memphis

FROM THE CHAPTER 16 ARCHIVE: Alice Faye Duncan’s award-winning 2018 picture book, Memphis, Martin, and the Mountaintop, offers children an account of the 1968 Memphis sanitation workers’ strike and the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

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Raise the Roof for Tennessee Women and Title IX

Mary Ellen Pethel celebrates the lives of 50 Tennessee women athletes

In Title IX, Pat Summitt, and Tennessee’s Trailblazers, historian Mary Ellen Pethel measures the impact of 50 years of Title IX legislation on Tennessee women’s athletics in higher education. Pethel will discuss the book at the Tennessee State Museum in Nashville on March 11.

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