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September 14, 2024 Festival
Schedule Flipbook
Official Panelists
Features & Attractions
Funders
Merchandise
About
What We're About
Who We Are
Most Recent Festival
2024 Official Panelists
Look who's coming!
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Workshop Leader
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Nana Kwame is the
New York Times
-bestselling author of
Friday Black
. His work has appeared in
The New
...
Kaveh Akbar
Kaveh's poems appear in
The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Paris Review, The Best American Poetry,
and elsewhere. He is the...
Jonathan Allen
Jonathan is a senior political analyst with NBC News digital. A winner of the Dirksen and Hume awards for reporting, he was previously the White...
Allison Alsup
Allison's historically researched debut novel,
Foreign Seed
, was released this June by Keylight Books, an imprint of Turner Publishing. Allison's writing...
John G. Anderson
John is the youngest child of famed artist Walter Anderson and Agnes Anderson. Anderson, the family curator, grew up in the artistic retreat...
Katya Apekina
Katya is a novelist, screenwriter, and translator. Her debut novel,
The Deeper the Water, the Uglier the Fish
, was named a Best Book...
Jami Attenberg
Jami has written about food, travel, books, relationships, and urban life for
The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal,
...
A. H. Jerriod Avant
Jerriod was born and raised in Longtown, Mississippi. His first book,
Muscadine
, (Four Way Books, 2023) received the 2024 Mississippi Institute of the Arts and...
Jeff Barry
Jeff is a native Memphian with deep Mississippi roots. After graduate school, he lived on a small cattle farm like the one featured in
...
Manly Barton
Manly Barton is serving his fourth term in the Mississippi House of Representatives. He is the current Speaker Pro-Tem of the House of Representatives and...
Sarah-SoonLing Blackburn
Sarah-SoonLing is an educator, speaker, author, and professional learning facilitator. She is currently Deputy Director, Learning and Engagement at Learning for Justice. Sarah...
Terri Blackstock
Terri is a
New York Times
and
USA Today
best-selling novelist, with over seven million books sold worldwide. She is the...
Ashley Blooms
Ashley (they/she) is the author of
Where I Can’t Follow
, which was a finalist for the Weatherford Award, and was named...
Chris Bohjalian
Chris is the #1
New York Times
bestselling author of twenty-four books, including
The Lioness, Hour of the Witch, Midwives,
and...
Lee Boudreaux
Lee, Vice President and Executive Editor, joined Doubleday in 2018 and publishes exclusively fiction, seeking out unexpected stories and original voices in novels notable...
Camille Boxhill
Camille is a Jamaican-American writer currently based in South Florida. She earned anMA in Creative Writing with Distinction from the University of Bristol. Boxhill is...
Betsy Bradley
Betsy was appointed director of the Mississippi Museum of Art (MMA) in December, 2001. Previously, she served as executive director of the Mississippi Arts...
KB Brookins
KB is a Black queer and trans writer, cultural worker, and visual artist from Texas. KB's chapbook
How To Identify Yourself with a Wound<
...
Layne Bruce
Layne has served executive director of the Mississippi Press Association and secretary of the Mississippi Press Foundation since 2007. MPA is the trade association...
Gabi Burton
Gabi grew up reading and writing in St. Louis, Missouri. She graduated from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine in 2021. Now, she works as...
LeVar Burton
LeVar is best known for his roles in
ROOTS, Star Trek: Next Generation,
and
Reading Rainbow
. He is an actor,...
Anne Byrn
Anne is a
New York Times
bestselling food writer and author. She writes the weekly newsletter Between the Layers, one of the...
Jimmy Cajoleas
Jimmy was born in Jackson, Mississippi. He earned his MFA from the University of Mississippi. He is the author of five novels and lives...
Cebo Campbell
Cebo is an author and creative director based in Brooklyn, New York. Winner of the Linda L. Ross Creative Writing Award and the Stories...
Tracy Carr
Tracy is a researcher, editor, and writer in Jackson, Mississippi. She manages the book reviews for the Mississippi Books Page in the
...
F.E. Choe
F.E. is a Korean-American writer whose work has been published in
Clarkesworld
Magazine,
The Moth Magazine
, and
Fractured
...
Adam Clay
Adam's most recent book is
Circle Back
(Milkweed Editions, 2024). His poems have appeared in
Ploughshares, Denver Quarterly, Tin House, Bennington Review, Georgia
...
Constance Collier-Mercado
Constance is an experimental writer, artist, and womanist culture worker committed to Black language and collective memory. Born in Chicago and raised in the Bronx,...
Margo Cooper
Margo is a photographer and oral historian working in the classic documentary tradition. She is a longtime contributing writer and photographer for
...
Jonathan Corcoran
Jonathan is the author of the memoir,
No Son of Mine
(April 2024, University Press of Kentucky), and the story collection,
The
...
Eli Cranor
Nationally bestselling, award-winning author Eli Cranor writes from Arkansas where he lives with his wife and kids. His critically acclaimed debut novel,
...
Elizabeth Crook
Elizabeth, a recipient of the Texas Writer Award, is the author of six novels, including
The Night Journal
, which received the Spur...
Avery Cunningham
Avery is a resident of Memphis, TN, and a 2016 graduate of DePaul University's Master of Arts Writing & Publishing program. She has over a...
Patrick Dean
Patrick lives, works, and plays in and around Monteagle, Tennessee. He has written speeches for Congressional candidates, taught inner-city high-school English, and earned a master's...
Kate DiCamillo
Kate is one of America’s most beloved storytellers. She is a former National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature and a two-time Newbery Medalist....
Eric Jay Dolin
Eric is the author of sixteen books, including
Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America
, which was chosen as one of the...
Todd Doughty
Todd is currently SVP, Publicity and Communications, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group and has worked at Penguin Random House for more than two decades. A graduate...
Jeff Duncan
Jeff, a native of Louisville, Kentucky, is a sports columnist for the
New Orleans Times-Picayune
and was a member of the team that...
William Dunlap
William is a painter, writer, arts advocate, and commentator. The American landscape, its flora, and fauna are essential elements in Dunlap’s art, as...
John T. Edge
John hosts the television show TrueSouth (SEC Network, ESPN, & Hulu), now in its sixth season, and serves
Garden & Gun
as a columnist. He...
Jonathan Eig
Jonathan is a former senior writer for
The Wall Street Journal.
He is the
New York Times
bestselling author of five...
Helen Ellis
Helen is the author of five books including the
New York Times
bestselling
American Housewife and Southern Lady Code
. She writes...
W. Ralph Eubanks
W. Ralph is the author of
A Place Like Mississippi: A Journey Through A Real and Imagined Literary Landscape
(Timber Press, March 2021). A...
Jen Fawkes
Jen is the author of
Mannequin and Wife
(LSU Press), a 2020 Shirley Jackson Award Nominee, and
Tales the Devil Told Me<
...
Beth Ann Fennelly
Beth Ann has published three poetry books:
Open House, Tender Hooks
, and
Unmentionables
, all with W. W. Norton. She is...
Ellen Ann Fentress
Ellen Ann is a journalist, writer and filmmaker. Her book
The Steps We Take: A Memoir of Southern Reckoning
is being released...
Germaine Flood
Germaine, a graduate of Northwest Rankin High School and Mississippi College, began her professional radio career as an on-air personality in 2004. She has...
Dionne Ford
Dionne is author of the memoir
Go Back and Get It
(Bold Type Books) and co-editor of the anthology
Slavery's Descendants:
...
Josh Foreman
Josh writes about Mississippi and the broader South with his longtime friend Ryan Starrett. In their narrative history books, Josh and Ryan tell stories from...
Crystal Forte
Crystal is a proud graduate of the class of 2008 and 2010 of Miles College. She also holds a Masters in English Language Arts Education ...
Tom Franklin
Tom is the award-winning and
New York Times
bestselling author of
Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter
, which was nominated...
X.M. Frascogna, Jr.
X.M. has specialized in entertainment and sports law since the early seventies. He has co-authored with his sons five books about football...
Marion Garrard Barnwell
Marion grew up in the fabled Mississippi Delta. Her writing life began at age thirteen with a column in the town newspaper. For ...
Melissa Ginsburg
Melissa is the author of the novels
The House Uptown
and
Sunset City
, the poetry collections
Doll Apollo
(winner...
Sarah Gonzales
Sarah was born in Saudi Arabia and grew up in Alberta. She graduated from the Alberta College of Art + Design with a Bachelors of Visual...
Alina Grabowski
Alina grew up in coastal Massachusetts and holds degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and Vanderbilt University. Her debut novel,
Women and Children
...
Garrett M. Graff
Bestselling historian, journalist, and Pulitzer Prize finalist Garrett M. Graff has spent two decades covering politics, technology, and national security. His award-winning work-including...
Juliet Grames
Juliet is the author of
The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna
, a national and international bestseller, and
The Lost
...
Richard Grant
Richard is an author of nonfiction books, a journalist, and a documentary film writer. His last two books,
Dispatches from Pluto
and ...
Catherine Simone Gray
Catherine is an author, educator, and creator of the blog Unsilenced Woman, where her writings on motherhood, the body, and healing from trauma have captivated...
Dale Gray
Dale was born in South Africa. After graduating from Stellenbosch University, she moved to South Korea to teach English and spent six years ...
John Caleb Grenn
JC grew up in Hattiesburg, Mississippi and holds degrees from The University of Southern Mississippi and the University of Mississippi Medical Center. He...
Minrose Gwin
Minrose is the author of the novels
The Queen of Palmyra
, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers pick and a finalist...
Grace Elizabeth Hale
Grace is the Commonwealth Professor of American Studies and History at the University of Virginia. An award-winning historian and internationally recognized expert on...
Shaun Hamill
Shaun received his BA in English from the University of Texas at Arlington, and his MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. His debut novel,...
Sarah Frances Hardy
A resident of Oxford, Mississippi, Sarah is a retired lawyer and (not retired) fine artist who has redirected her creative juices towards writing...
Mary Annaïse Heglar
Mary is known for her essays that dissect and interrogate the climate crisis, drawing heavily on her personal experience as a Black woman...
Mary Annaïse Heglar
Mary is known for her essays that dissect and interrogate the climate crisis, drawing heavily on her personal experience as a Black woman with deep...
Beth Henley
Beth Henley is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter, and professor. Her plays include CRIMES OF THE HEART (Pulitzer Prize in Drama, New York Drama Critics Circle...
Kelly Lytle Hernández
Kelly is a professor of History, African American Studies, and Urban Planning at UCLA where she holds The Thomas E. Lifka Endowed Chair in History...
Ernest Herndon
Ernest has authored or coauthored 18 books, including two guidebooks ("Canoeing Mississippi" and "Canoeing Louisiana") and a downriver adventure travel narrative ("Paddling the Pascagoula,"...
J.L. Holloway
J.L., a native of Prentiss, Mississippi, who started picking cotton at the age of 4, has been an entrepreneur his entire life. Holloway has...
Jasmine L. Holmes
Jasmine is a passionate writer and educator who celebrates Black stories through her books, including
Carved in Ebony, Mother to Son
, ...
Senator John Horhn
John is in his 32nd year as a member of the Mississippi Senate, where he has been a champion for small business development and the...
Gabino Iglesias
Gabino is the author of the Shirley Jackson and Bram Stoker award-winning novel,
The Devil Takes You Home
, as well as author...
Jenny Jackson
Jenny is the
New York Times
bestselling author of
Pineapple Street
. A graduate of Williams College and the Columbia Publishing Course,...
Major Jackson
Major is the author of six collections of poetry:
Razzle Dazzle: New & Selected Poems; The Absurd Man; Roll Deep; Holding Company; Hoops;<
...
Paulette Jiles
Paulette is a novelist, poet, and memoirist. She is the author of
Cousins
, a memoir, and the novels
Enemy Women, Stormy Weather,
...
Sebastian Junger
Sebastian is the
New York Times
bestselling author of
Tribe, War, Freedom, A Death in Belmont, Fire, and The Perfect Storm<
...
Andrew W. Kahrl
Andrew is a professor of History and African American Studies at the University of Virginia, where he specializes in the history of race and...
Joseph Kanon
Joseph is the Edgar Award-winning author of
Los Alamos
and nine other novels:
The Prodigal Spy, Alibi, Stardust, Istanbul Passage, Leaving
...
Jonathan Karl
Bio to come.
Rachel Khong
Rachel is the author of
Goodbye, Vitamin
, winner of the California Book Award for First Fiction, and named a Best Book of the...
Erik Larson
Erik is the author of six national bestsellers:
The Splendid and the Vile, Dead Wake, In the Garden of Beasts, Thunderstruck, The Devil
...
Joe Lee
Originally from Jackson, Mississippi, and with a background in radio, television, and journalism, Joe Lee has written nine suspense novels, the last seven...
R. J. Lee
A Natchez, Ms native, R. J. Lee graduated from Sewanee (U. of the South) with a degree in English and Creative Writing, taking courses...
Claire Lombardo
Claire is the author of
The Most Fun We Ever Had
, which has been optioned for television by Reese Witherspoon. She lives...
Beverly Lowry
Beverly is the author of six novels and four previous works of nonfiction. Her writing has appeared in
The New Yorker, The New York
...
Robert E. Luckett, Jr.
Robby received his BA in political science from Yale University and his PhD in history from the University of Georgia. A native Mississippian, he returned...
Ebony Lumumba
Dr. Lumumba is an associate professor of English at Jackson State University and serves as department chair. She was named the 2013 Eudora Welty...
Rachel Lyon
Rachel is the author of
Fruit of the Dead
and
Self-Portrait with Boy
, a finalist for the Center for Fiction's...
Anna Lyons
Anna is an artist raised in southern Louisiana now living in Jackson, MS. She is a graduate of The School of the Art Institute of...
Jenn Lyons
Twice-nominated Astounding Award finalist Jenn Lyons lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her husband, her cats and a nearly infinite number of opinions on...
Lee Mandelo
Lee is a writer, critic, and occasional editor whose fields of interest include speculative and queer fiction, especially when the two coincide. His ...
Mesha Maren
Mesha is the author of the novels
Sugar Run, Perpetual West
, and
Shae
(May 2024, Algonquin Books). Her short stories and...
Suzanne Marrs
Professor Emerita of English at Millsaps College where she taught for twenty-seven years, Suzanne Marrs received the 1998 Phoenix Award for Outstanding Welty Scholarship from the...
Betsy Fischer Martin
Betsy is an Emmy-winning journalist and former TV news executive. Currently she is the Executive Director of the Women & Politics Institute at American...
Jonathan Martin
Jonathan is a senior political columnist for
Politico
, which he joined after spending nearly a decade as the national political correspondent for the ...
Alane Salierno Mason
Alane is an executive editor and vice president at the independent, employee-owned W.W. Norton & Company, where she has worked for 30 years. In...
Priyanka Mattoo
Priyanka is a writer, filmmaker, former talent agent, and a cofounder of Earios, a women-led podcast network. She is a contributor to
...
C. Liegh McInnis
C. Liegh is a poet, short story writer, and retired English instructor at Jackson State University, the former editor/publisher of
Black
...
Tracie McMillan
Tracie is a Midwestern transplant to New York City, and the author of two books:
The White Bonus: Five Families
and
...
Margaret McMullan
Margaret is the author of nine award-winning books including the novel,
In My Mother’s House,
the story collection
Aftermath Lounge,
...
Kate Medley
Kate is a North Carolina-based visual journalist documenting the American South. Her work focuses on storytelling and environmental portraiture and often explores issues...
Mary Miller
Mary is the author of two short story collections and two novels, most recently
Biloxi: A Novel
(Liveright 2019). Her fiction has appeared in ...
Jerry Mitchell
The stories of investigative reporter Jerry Mitchell have helped put four Klansmen and a serial killer behind bars. His stories have also helped free two...
Melissa Mogollon
Melissa is a fiction writer and high school educator. She holds an MFA in fiction from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and a BA from...
Heather C. Morris
Heather writes books full of science, wonder, and imagination for kids and adults. She is the author of six books and stories for kids,...
Michael Morris
A Jackson, Mississippi native, Michael Morris has served as the director of the Two Mississippi Museums-Museum of Mississippi History and Mississippi Civil Rights...
Brody Mullins
Brody is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter and author of
The Wolves of K Street: The Secret History of How Big Money Took
...
Luke Mullins
Luke is a contributing writer at
POLITICO
magazine, where he covers the people and institutions that control Washington's levers of power....
Ken Murphy
Ken is a commercial photographer and coffee table book publisher. Following nearly a decade of service in the Army as a tank commander and photography...
Cree Myles
Cree is a Webby nominated book influencer, professional reader and writer. She runs the Penguin Random House instagram channel All Ways Black, which...
Scott Naugle
In addition to serving on the book festival board of directors since the very beginning, Scott is a member of the Mississippi Arts Commission and...
Fabian Nelson
Fabian, a dedicated Mississippian, has earned degrees from American Public University, Jackson State University, and Holmes Community College. He holds a Certificate in Senior Executives...
Aimee Nezhukumatathil
Aimee is the author of the
New York Times
bestselling illustrated collection of nature essays
World of Wonders
, chosen as...
Darden North
Darden's six mystery and thriller novels have been awarded nationally, most notably IPPYs in Southern Fiction from the Independent Publisher Book Awards for ...
January Gill O’Neil
January is an associate professor at Salem State University and the author of
Glitter Road
(2024),
Rewilding
(2018),
Misery Islands
(2014),...
Nina Parikh
Nina is the director of the Mississippi Film Office, and previously served as the deputy director alongside former AFCI president and board member,...
Patrick Parker
Patrick is a physiologist, naturalist, and travel and outdoor writer. His writing has been featured in
US News & World Report
,
The Washington
...
Dustin Parsons
Dustin Parsons is the author of
Exploded View: Essays on Fatherhood, With Diagrams
. His work appears recently in
The Georgia Review, Brevity,
...
Ann Patchett
Ann is the author of nine novels:
The Patron Saint of Liars
,
Taft
,
The Magician’s
...
Ann Patchett
Ann is the author of nine novels:
The Patron Saint of Liars
,
Taft
,
The Magician’s
...
Joanna Pearson
Joanna’s debut novel, BRIGHT AND TENDER DARK, is forthcoming with Bloomsbury on June 4, 2024. Her second short story collection, NOW YOU KNOW IT ALL (University...
Julia Phillips
Julia is the bestselling author of the novel
Disappearing Earth
, which was a finalist for the National Book Award and one of ...
Catherine Pierce
Catherine is the author of four books of poems:
Danger Days
(2020),
The Tornado Is the World
(2016),
The Girls of Peculiar<
...
Randi Pink
Randi is the critically acclaimed author of
Angel of Greenwood,
praised by NPR as a story “American kids need to know”; and ...
Ann Taylor Pittman
Ann is a longtime food writer, food editor, and recipe developer who has won two James Beard Foundation Awards: one for the feature...
Jamie Quatro
Jamie is the
New York Times
Notable author of
I Want to Show You More
, a finalist for the
...
Marshall Ramsey
Marshall, a nationally recognized editorial cartoonist, shares his cartoons and travels the state as
Mississippi Today
’s Editor-At-Large. Marshall can often be found...
Ron Rash
Ron is the author of twenty books of poetry and fiction, including the PEN/Faulkner finalist and the New York Times bestselling novel Serena....
Helena Ku Rhee
Helena is an award-winning author of children's books and an essayist for publications such as the
Los Angeles Times
and
Salon<
...
Lauren Rhoades
Lauren is a writer and editor living in Jackson, Mississippi. Originally from Denver, Colorado, Lauren has served with AmeriCorps, started Mississippi's first fermentation company, and...
Kim Rogers
Kim is the author of
Just Like Grandma
, winner of the 2024 Charlotte Zolotow Award, 2024 Ezra Jack Keats Award Honor for Writer, ...
Ellen Hunter Ruffin
Ellen, associate professor at the University of Southern Mississippi, has been curator of the de Grummond Children's Literature Collection since 2006. She has served...
Maurice Carlos Ruffin
Maurice Carlos Ruffin is the author of National Bestseller,
The American Daughters
, a New York Times Editor’s Choice published by One World...
Di Rushing
Di grew up in the Mississippi Delta. In 1976, she and her husband established the state's first winery near Merigold, Mississippi. A few years ...
Robert Samuels
Robert is a national political enterprise reporter for
The Washington Post
who focuses on the intersection of politics, policy, and people. He previously...
O.O. Sangoyomi
O.O. is a Nigerian American author with a penchant for African mythology and history. During a childhood of constantly moving around within...
Noah Saterstrom
Noah was raised in Mississippi and educated at Scotland's Glasgow School of Art. His paintings and drawings are in public and private collections...
Leona Sevick
The Bamboo Wife, published by Trio House Press, is Leona Sevick's second collection of poems. She is the winner of the 2017 Press 53 Poetry ...
Ery Shin
Ery was born in Ames, Iowa in 1986. She was raised in Manhattan for the first decade of her life, then Seoul for the second....
Wesley Shoop
Wesley received a Ph.D. in tropical medicine and parasitology at LSU where he studied and published nearly a dozen scientific studies on ...
Hampton Sides
Hampton is the author of
The New York Times
bestselling histories
On Desperate Ground, In the Kingdom of Ice, Hellhound on
...
Katy Simpson Smith
Katy was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. She is the author of the novels
The Story of Land and Sea
, a
...
Taryn Souders
Taryn's middle grade novels have been named to multiple state award lists, including the Pennsylvania's Young Readers Choice Awards, Georgia's Children's Book Awards,...
Paul M. Sparrow
Paul is a writer, historical consultant, and the former Director of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. Before moving to the...
Robert St. John
Robert is a restaurateur, author, producer, travel host, columnist, philanthropist, and serial entrepreneur. He has been in the restaurant business for 43 years, 37 years...
Ryan Starrett
Bio to come.
Heather Marie Stur
Heather Marie Stur, Ph.D., is professor of history at the University of Southern Mississippi and co-director of the Dale Center for the Study of...
Sheila Sundar
Sheila is a professor of English and creative writing at the University of Mississippi. Her writing has appeared in
The Virginia Quarterly
...
Buz Teacher
In 1972 Buz co-founded Running Press Book Publishers with his brother Larry, and it became one of the country’s largest independent publishers of all kinds...
Amy Bryant Thaxton
Bio to come.
Anthony Thaxton
Anthony has won awards as a writer, painter, educator, television director, and filmmaker. Named the 2019 Distinguished Art Alumnus of the Year for Mississippi...
Joseph Earl Thomas
Joseph is a writer from Frankford whose work has appeared or is forthcoming in
VQR, N+1, Gulf Coast, The Offing
, and
...
Joseph Earl Thomas
Joseph is a writer from Frankford whose work has appeared or is forthcoming in
VQR, N+1, Gulf Coast, The Offing
, and
The
...
Traci Thomas
Traci is the creator and host of The Stacks, a podcast about books and the way they shape culture. Traci is also a monthly...
Sami Thomason-Fyke
Sami is a former bookseller, events manager, and youth specialist from Oxford, MS. After getting her degree in English Literature from Millsaps College, Sami worked...
Natasha Trethewey
Natasha served two terms as the 19th Poet Laureate of the United States (2012-2014). She is the author of five collections of poetry,
Monument<
...
Rebecca Tuuri
Dr. Tuuri is the Associate Dean of the Honors College and an Associate Professor of History at the University of Southern Mississippi, where...
Boyce Upholt
Boyce is an award-winning journalist whose writing has appeared in the
Atlantic, National Geographic, Outside, the New Republic
, and
Time
,...
Valerie Walley
Valerie is Regional Director Knopf/Penguin Random House.
M.O. Walsh
M.O. is the author of the novels
The Big Door Prize
and
My Sunshine Away
, which was a
...
Jesmyn Ward
Jesmyn received her MFA from the University of Michigan and has received the MacArthur Genius Grant, a Stegner Fellowship, a John and Renee Grisham Writers...
Hannah V Warren
Hannah is a poet, translator, and Fulbright Scholar living in Athens, GA. She is the author of the poetry collection
Slaughterhouse for
...
Allen R. Wells
Allen is a Jackson, Mississippi. He's a graduate of Tennessee State University in Nashville. As an author, he believes in fostering safe literary...
Lawrence Wells
Lawrence's "Ghostwriter" memoir tells of ghostwriting a novel about the "Fair Youth" of Shakespeare's sonnets. It was awarded the narrative non-fiction prize at...
Mark Whitaker
Mark is the author of the critically acclaimed memoir
My Long Trip Home
, and
Smoketown: The Untold Story of the Other
...
Mary Alice Welty White
Mary Alice, niece of Eudora Welty, grew up around the corner from her aunt and has many memories of traveling, family gatherings, and conversations with...
Shad White
Shad is the state auditor of Mississippi. During his tenure, the auditor's office has uncovered more waste, fraud, and abuse than at any ...
Julie Liddell Whitehead
Julie lives and writes from Mississippi. Her debut fiction collection,
Hurricane Baby: Stories
, publishes August 2024 from Madville Publishing. The characters in these...
Crystal Wilkinson
Crystal, a recent fellowship recipient of the Academy of American Poets, is the award-winning author of
Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts
, ...
Diane Williams
Along with Richelle Putnam, Diane coauthored
A Guide to Mississippi Museums
. She is the author of
The Life & Legacy of B
...
Enrika Williams
Chef Enrika is a Mississippi-born and raised creator and chef-owner of Fauna Foodworks. Chef Enrika has had the unique experience of working with her greatest...
Kidada E. Williams
Kidada delves into the lives of African American victims and survivors of racist violence. Her work,
I Saw Death Coming
, was Longlisted...
Phillip B. Williams
Phillip is a Chicago, Illinois native. He is the author of the debut novel
Ours
(Viking 2024), the full-length poetry collections
Mutiny<
...
Gerry Wilson
Gerry is the author of a literary historical novel,
That Pinson Girl
(Regal House Publishing, February 2024), and a short story collection,
Crosscurrents
...
Henry Wise
Henry is a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute and the University of Mississippi MFA Program. His work has appeared in Shenandoah, Nixes...
Anna Wolfe
Anna is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter who covers inequity and corruption in government safety net programs, nonprofit service providers and institutions affecting the marginalized....
Jerid P. Woods (Akili Nzuri)
Jerid, also known as Akili Nzuri, is a writer, educator, Ph.D. candidate, and literary influencer. He was born and raised in Natchez, MS, and...
Snowden Wright
Snowden is the author of the novel
American Pop
, a
Wall Street Journal
WSJ+ Book of the Month, selection for Barnes &...
Ben Wynne
A native of Florence, Mississippi, Ben Wynne earned an undergraduate degree from Millsaps College, a master's degree in history from Mississippi College, and...
Anne Wynter
Anne is the award-winning author of the picture books
Nell Plants a Tree, Everybody in the Red Brick Building
and
Patrick and
...
Steve Yarbrough
Steve is the author of twelve books, most recently the novel
Stay Gone Days
. He has twice won the Mississippi Institute of Arts...
Steve Yates
Steve was born and reared in Springfield, Missouri, and has lived twenty-six years in Flowood, Mississippi. Most recently, he authored
The Lakes
...
Nicola Yoon
Nicola is the #1
New York Times
best-selling author of
Instructions for Dancing; Everything, Everything
; and
The Sun Is Also
...
Yurina Yoshikawa
Yurina holds a B.A. from Barnard College and an M.F.A. from Columbia University. Her writing has appeared in
The Atlantic, NPR,
...
