Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Motherless Child

Monica Brashears’ debut novel delivers a strange, haunting world

FROM THE CHAPTER 16 ARCHIVE: With its reverberations of pain and trauma, Monica Brashears’ debut novel House of Cotton is not for the faint of heart; however, it is lush, gorgeous evidence of a new and decisive talent. 

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“A Haunting of My Own Name”

Julian Randall’s lyrical memoir uncovers the past to light a brighter future

Comprised of braided essays which use key pop-culture moments to weave together stories of triumph and personal exploration, Julian Randall’s The Dead Don’t Need Reminding unearths grief and deeply rooted family histories.

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Damaged Goods

In Colm Tóibín’s Long Island, an Irish immigrant returns home to pick up the pieces of her life

In Colm Tóibín’s new novel Long Island, an Irish immigrant in New York returns to her home village to reassess her broken life. Tóibín will discuss Long Island at Parnassus Books in Nashville on May 9.

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Both in and out of Place

Deviant Hollers pushes against reductive stereotypes about Appalachia’s future

Pushing against narratives of Appalachia that include only white, patriarchal, and heteronormative characterizations, the authors collected in Deviant Hollers: Queering Appalachian Ecologies for a Sustainable Future hope to open up new spaces of possibility for envisioning the region.

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The Best-Laid Plans

Jeff Zentner’s new novel signals a change in literary direction

With Colton Gentry’s Third Act, award-winning YA author Jeff Zentner tries his hand at adult contemporary romance with a Southern flair. Zentner will appear in conversation with Silas House and David Arnold at Parnassus Books in Nashville on April 30.

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Looking Back on 50 Years of Tennessee Books

50 Books / HT50, Part 8: 2010-2012

This installment of the 50 Books / HT50 series is entirely devoted to novels and features two deftly comic tales, a searing depiction of Stalin’s gulag, a finely wrought drama set in occupied Japan, and an Appalachian story of beauty, climate change, and personal evolution.

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