Emily Choate | writer

I’m excited to share my latest for Chapter 16—a review of Richard Powers’ new novel, Playground. Last year, also for Chapter 16, I had the chance to write a personal reflection on Powers’ masterwork The Overstory and to participate in this enjoyable virtual discussion on the novel. So, reviewing Playground now is especially meaningful to me. From my review (which you can read here): “In his recent novels, Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Powers invites us to set down the blinkered limitations of human perspectives and connect to the natural world in deeper, more urgent ways. Now, with Playground, Powers brings his inimitable storytelling to Earth’s subterranean depths, illuminating the abundant riches of our oceans and the critical dangers they face.”

I’m excited to share my latest piece for Chapter 16—a poetry roundup of three debut collections by TN writers: Tara M. Stringfellow (Magic Enuff), Ben Groner III (Dust Storms May Exist), and Stephanie Choi (The Lengest Neoi). These books are all assured, inventive debuts, and I hope you’ll check them out! You can read my review over at Chapter 16.

I’m delighted to share my latest piece for Chapter 16, which is a review of Deviant Hollers: Queering Appalachian Ecologies for a Sustainable Future, edited by Rebecca Scott and Zane McNeill. From the piece: “Pushing against narratives of Appalachia that include only white, patriarchal, and heteronormative characterizations, the authors collected in Deviant Hollers hope to open up new spaces of possibility for envisioning the region.” You can read the review here.

Earlier this month, Chapter 16 published my Q&A with children’s author Shannon Hitchcock about her new picture book, Of Words & Water. This book offers a beautiful introduction to the life and work of Appalachian author and environmentalist Wilma Dykeman. I loved Of Words and Water, which places Dykeman’s life & work in a lyrical, atmospheric context created by mixed-media illustrations by Sophie Page. Dykeman’s devotion to the natural world was deeply inspiring, and I hope more folks learn about her work. A few years ago, I had the chance to write about her memoir, Family of Earth. That book, which was discovered in manuscript form after her death, perfectly captures Dykeman’s ethos, as embodied in this line from an early chapter: “The life of one human is the life of every other living thing on earth.”

My first piece of the new year is up today at Chapter 16. I hope you’ll check out poet Jane Hicks’ new knockout collection, The Safety of Small Things. From my review (which you can read here): “Throughout East TN poet Jane Hicks’ stunning new collection, The Safety of Small Things, the unseen elements of our lives reveal themselves in vibrant, insistent ways. Sometimes they console. Sometimes they menace. With masterful discernment, Hicks enables us to sense the many-layered truths contained in each moment and to marvel at their resonance.”

This week, Chapter 16 has rerun a piece I wrote in 2019 about an evolving lifelong fascination with Dylan Thomas’ “A Child’s Christmas in Wales.” I loved writing this piece, and I’m so grateful to Maria Browning and Chapter 16 for giving it such a good home. You can read my essay, titled “Some Words to the Close and Holy Darkness,” here.

I’m excited to share my latest for Chapter 16. I love writing poetry roundup reviews, and these three memorable new collections are worth your time: Erin Hoover’s No Spare People, L.S. McKee’s Creature, Wing, Heart, Machine, and Shuly Xóchitl Cawood’s Something So Good It Can Never Be Enough. You can read my review at Chapter16.org.

My latest review for Chapter 16, up this week, covers Cookeville writer Monic Ductan’s debut story collection, Daughters of Muscadine. These linked stories entangle the historical and psychological legacies of several generations of Black families in Muscadine, a fictional rural town in northeast Georgia. You can read my review over at Chapter 16.

I’m delighted to share my recent review of poet Lisa Dordal’s new, innovative collection, Next Time You Come Home. Dordal worked with a huge trove of letters written to her by her late mother, Milly, to create the poems in this book, “distilling” them and shaping them. The result is a startling, memorable exchange between daughter and mother. You can read my review at Chapter 16.

It’s new Ron Rash novel time! Last month, I had the chance to share my thoughts about Rash’s melancholy reflection on love and loss, The Caretaker. Rash is one of my favorites, so this was a treat. You can read my review over at Chapter 16 (another one of my favorites).