January 11, 2021

Editor's Note Memphis native Eric Jerome Dickey was a software engineer, an actor, and a stand-up comic before he found his literary calling. His fast-paced, often erotically-charged fiction won him millions of loyal readers, and as he revealed in interviews with Chapter 16 in 2014 and 2010, he was a thoughtful writer with a deep interest in his morally complex characters. His death last week at 59 is a sad loss to his many fans and to the literary community. Roxane Gay's simple praise said it best: "He was a great storyteller." We offer condolences to his family and friends. Dickey is remembered in the Commercial Appeal, The Washington Post and The New York Times.

In recent news of Tennessee writers: Charles Dodd White was interviewed by West Virginia Public Broadcasting and Morehead State Public Radio.  Amanda Little wrote about restaurants in the pandemic for Financial Post. Kim Green explored the stories of real private eyes for Crime Reads.  Silas House wrote about being a Democrat in a red state for The Atlantic. Sheree Renée Thomas was interviewed for Locus. Jennie Fields was interviewed for The Bookish Vegan.

Recently at Chapter 16

An Unbroken Thread (Q&A) Poet Jesse Graves discusses his fourth collection, Merciful Days By Linda Parsons

Why Am I Alive? (Review) Michael Farris Smith imagines the troubled pre-Gatsby years of Fitzgerald’s Nick Carraway By Sean Kinch

This Is How I Saved Myself (Review) Tina Turner shares her spiritual practice of 50 years By Tina Chambers

Write Like I’m Hungry (Review) Unlikely Angel delves into Dolly Parton’s formidable skill as a songwriter By Emily Choate

She Loved Baseball (Review) Andrea Williams tells the story of Effa Manley in Baseball’s Leading Lady By Tracy Barrett

From the Archive What Is Not Missing Is Light (Poem) 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. By Bridgette Bates

Coming Up

Q&A with Amanda Little re The Fate of Food  Review of A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders (appearing at a virtual event hosted by Parnassus Books in Nashville on 1/19) Review of Hidden History of Music Row by Elizabeth Elkins, Vanessa Olivarez, and Brian Allison  Review of Robert B. Parker’s Someone to Watch Over Me by Ace Atkins Q&A with Peter Guralnick re Looking to Get Lost