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September 13, 2025 Festival
Schedule Flipbook
Features & Attractions
Official Panelists
Funders
About
What We're About
Who We Are
Most Recent Festival
Make a Contribution
Be a Funder
Become a Volunteer
Join as an Exhibitor
Suggest a Panelist
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Moderator
Non-Fiction
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Poetry
Workshop Leader
Hanif Abdurraqib
Hanif is an award-winning poet, essayist, and cultural critic from Columbus, Ohio. His newest release,
There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension
...
Nadia Alexis
Nadia is a poet, writer, and photographer, born and raised in Harlem, to Haitian immigrants. She is the author of
Beyond the
...
Dexter Allen
Grammy® Award winner Dexter Allen hails from Crystal Springs, MS. Raised in a musical family, he began playing bass at 12 and later became lead guitarist...
Jonathan Allen
Jonathan is a three-time
New York Times
bestselling author and award-winning journalist. A senior national political reporter for NBC News, he...
Steve Almond
Steve is the author of twelve books, including the
NYT
bestsellers "Candyfreak" and "Against Football." His first novel, "Which Brings Me...
Scott Anderson
Scott is the author of two novels and five works of nonfiction, including
Lawrence of Arabia
, an international bestseller which was...
Kat Armas
Kat (MDiv and MAT, Fuller Theological Seminary), a Cuban American writer and speaker, hosts The Protagonistas podcast, where she highlights stories of everyday women of...
Kristen Arnett
Kristen is the author of the
New York Times
-bestselling novel
Mostly Dead Things
and the award-winning collection
Felt
...
Jami Attenberg
Jami is the
New York Times
bestselling author of ten books, including
The Middlesteins, All Grown Up
, the recently ...
Governor Haley Barbour
Founding Partner of BGR Group, Haley Barbour returned to BGR in January 2012 after serving two consecutive terms as Governor of Mississippi, including two years...
Jim Barksdale
Jim Barksdale is chairman of the board and president of Barksdale Management Corporation, a private company managing his investments and philanthropic activities. He also serves...
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
...
Speaker Pro Tempore Manly Barton
Manly is serving his fourth term in the Mississippi House of Representatives. He is the current Speaker Pro-Tem of the House of Representatives...
James Berger
Bio coming soon.
J. A. Bernstein
J. A. is the author of
Rachel's Tomb
, which won the Association of Writers & Writing Programs Award Series Novel Prize and...
Kai Bird
Kai is a Pulitzer Prize winning historian who has published biographies of John J. McCloy, McGeorge Bundy, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Robert Ames-and now ...
Stevie J. Blues
Stevie, son of a pastor, began in gospel and Southern soul before finding his passion in blues. He toured with Bobby Rush and contributed to...
Matthew Bounds
Matthew Bounds, AKA Your Barefoot Neighbor, is a social media personality who believes that feeding our families and ourselves shouldn’t be too difficult. Matthew...
Jeffrey Boutwell
Jeffrey is a writer, historian, and public policy specialist whose forty-year career spanned journalism, government, and international scientific research and cooperation. He has...
Douglas Bristol
Douglas is a historian of the African American experience and military history. He studies the beliefs, institutions, and strategies that ordinary Americans used...
Geraldine Brooks
New York Times
-bestselling and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Geraldine Brooks writes impeccably researched historical novels, including
The Secret Chord
,
March<
...
Peter Brown
Peter is the author and illustrator of many bestselling children's books, including
The Wild Robot
Trilogy,
Children Make Terrible Pets,
...
Landon Bryant
Landon is a dynamic force in the world of social media, rapidly gaining fame as an influential Southern storyteller. You likely know Landon...
Paul Burch
Paul is a writer, composer, and recording artist. He has produced numerous albums with his band the WPA Ballclub, including Last of My...
Robert Busby
Robert is the author of
Bodock
, which won the C. Michael Curtis Short Story Book Prize and was published by Hub City...
Victoria Bynum
Victoria is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History at Texas State University, San Marcos. An award-winning author and NEH Fellow, she is the author...
Susannah Cahalan
Susannah is a number one
New York Times
bestselling author, journalist, and public speaker. Her first book,
Brain on Fire<
...
Tracy Carr
Tracy is a researcher, editor, and writer in Jackson, Mississippi. She is the editor of Conversations with Ellen Gilchrist, to be published in...
Katherine Carter
Katherine is a curator and historian who has managed the house and collections at Chartwell, Winston Churchill’s country home, for more than a decade....
Addie E. Citchens
Addie was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi, and lives in New Orleans. A graduate of Jackson State University, she studied in the Florida State...
Joshua Clark
Joshua is the author of
Heart Like Water
, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle award, and
Leopard
, a...
Rick Cleveland
Mississippi Today
columnist Rick Cleveland, a Hattiesburg native and Jackson resident, is the most decorated sports journalist in Mississippi history. A 1975...
Lee Cole
Lee was born and grew up in rural Kentucky. He is the author of the novels
Groundskeeping
and, most recently,
...
Andy Corren
Andy was born and raised on the wrong side of Fayetteville, North Carolina. He barely graduated Westover, got fired from every job in...
MacArthur Cotton
MacArthur was a field secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in Mississippi from 1961 through 1966. He later served as chairman of the Attala County...
Eddie Cotton, Jr.
Eddie, born in Mississippi and raised in the church, blends gospel and blues into a modern yet traditional sound. A graduate of Jackson State University,...
Pamela Courtney
Pamela has three loves: writing, teaching, and music. She combined these passions, creating MyLMNOP, a literacy and music program for early learners. With...
Eli Cranor
Bestselling, award-winning author Eli Cranor played quarterback at every level: peewee to professional. During his time at Ouachita, Cranor double majored in Political ...
Bill Crawford
Over the last fifty-five years, Canton, MS, native Bill Crawford has been a daily newspaper reporter, a crusading small-town weekly editor, a statewide...
David Crews
David is the Clerk of Court for the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Mississippi. He is a former United States...
James R. Crockett
James is an accounting professor emeritus from the University of Southern Mississippi. He has held various types of teaching and administrative positions at...
Josh Dawsey
Josh is a political investigations and enterprise reporter for
The Wall Street Journal
. He most recently worked as a political enterprise and...
Marcy Dermansky
Marcy is the author of the critically acclaimed novels
Hurricane Girl, Very Nice, The Red Car, Bad Marie
, and
Twins<
...
Gloria Carter Dickerson
Gloria Carter Dickerson is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of We2gether Creating Change, an organization committed to the transformation of the Mississippi Delta...
Anton DiSclafani
Anton DiSclafani is the author of two novels,
The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls
and
The After Party
. Her columns on...
Swamp Dogg
Swamp Dogg (aka Jerry Williams Jr.) is a cult soul superhero with over 65 years in the music industry as a singer, songwriter, and ...
David M. Drucker
David is the author of
In Trump's Shadow; The Battle for 2024
and the
Future of the GOP
(October 2021; Twelve Books)...
Kendall Dunkelberg
Kendall directs the low-residency MFA in Creative Writing and the Eudora Welty Writers' Symposium at Mississippi University for Women. He is editor of...
Antwan Eady
Antwan is the author of the award-winning picture book
Nigel and the Moon
, illustrated by Gracey Zhang. Down the dirt roads of South...
John T. Edge
John writes and hosts the Emmy Award-winning television show TrueSouth on the SEC Network, ESPN, Disney, and Hulu. Edge also writes a restaurant...
Liz Egan
Liz is a lecturer in Creative Writing and Director of the McMullan Writers Workshops at Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi. She holds an MFA from...
Helen Ellis
Helen is the author of five books including the
New York Times
bestselling
American Housewife and Southern Lady Code
. She writes...
Kelly Norman Ellis
Raised in the heart of WOKJ, pan trout fish fries, and the Sonic Boom of the South, Kelly Norman Ellis is a poet and...
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...
Hank Ewert
Hank grew up in Kingsville and Riviera, Texas, where he developed a love for reptiles, being outdoors, and seafood. His older brother Bill...
David Wright Faladé
David is a professor of English at the University of Illinois and the Mary Ellen von der Heyden Fellow at the New York ...
Carla Falkner
Carla joined the Mississippi Humanities Council in 2021 as Project Coordinator for the Prison Education program. A native Texan, she moved to Mississippi in 1979...
Craig Kofi Farmer
Craig is the Coretta Scott King John Steptoe New Talent Award-winning author of the middle grade novels
Kwame Crashes the Underworld
...
Rickey Fayne
Rickey is a fiction writer from rural West Tennessee whose work has appeared in
American Short Fiction, Guernica, The Sewanee Review
,...
Diane T. Feldman
Diane was born in Washington, DC and grew up in New York City before returning to Washington. She was President of a research...
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...
Robert W. Fieseler
Robert is a journalist investigating marginalized groups and a scholar excavating forgotten histories. A National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association "Journalist of the...
Ann Fisher-Wirth
Ann is the Mississippi Poet Laureate for the term 2025-2029. Her eighth book of poems, Into the Chalice of Your Thoughts, is a...
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...
Angela Flournoy
Angela is the author of
The Turner House
, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, a finalist for the Center...
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 ...
Robert Fortenberry
Bio coming soon.
Olivia Clare Friedman
Olivia is the author of four books, most recently the book of poems
AN ARM FIXED TO A WING
(2025) from LSU ...
Louie P. Gallo
Louie P. Gallo is the Managing Editor at the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library and Museum. He previously worked at the National McKinley Birthplace Museum...
Melissa Ginsburg
Melissa is the author of the poetry collections
Doll Apollo
and
Dear Weather Ghost
, the novels
The House Uptown<
...
Melody Golding
Melody is an author, photographer and artist living in Vicksburg, Mississippi. The Smithsonian Institution National Museum of American History archives center acquired her...
Nicky Gonzalez
Nicky is a writer from Hialeah, Florida. Her fiction has appeared in
McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, BOMB, The Kenyon Review, Taco Bell Quarterly,<
...
Vondaris Gordon
Von is a native of Moorhead, MS, in Sunflower County. He was recently appointed as the Deputy Director of the Immigrant Alliance for Justice and...
Garrett M. Graff
Bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize finalist historian Garrett M. Graff has covered politics, technology, and national security for two decades. His award-winning work-including...
Catherine Simone Gray
Catherine is a writer and teacher who has made her home in Mississippi since puberty. She is the author of "Proud Flesh: A...
Sherye S. Green
The writings of Sherye Green reflect her journey of faith and explore the heart’s inner landscape. An author, singer, and speaker, Sherye has long...
Tammy Greer
Dr. Greer is citizen of the United Houma Nation and director of the Southern Miss Center for American Indian Research and Studies. She...
Sandy Grisham
Sandy was a non-traditional student who got hooked on learning at the age of 38 and never quit. She is a former executive secretary,...
Natalie Guerrero
Natalie is a Dominican and Puerto Rican writer based in Los Angeles. Her writing has been featured in publications such as
Electric Literature, Byline,
...
Doug Gunn
Bio coming soon.
Adam Gussow
Adam is a professor of English and Southern Studies at the University of Mississippi and a blues harmonica player and teacher. He has...
Robert Hall
Former deputy police chief Robert Hall has shared his remarkable journey in a new book titled "Badge Unbroken: The Robert Hall Story," co-authored...
Dr. Lakeysha Hallmon
Dr. Hallmon has transformed the lives of thousands of Black entrepreneurs across the world through her flagship brand The Village Market, and sister organizations The...
Zac Harmon
Zac is an award-winning guitarist, singer, and songwriter whose style continues the lineage of American Blues music. Blues Revue called Harmon "a masterful musician...
Karlie Herndon
Bio coming soon.
Sara Hildreth
Sara is a former English teacher and the creator of FictionMatters, a literary Instagram account and best-selling Substack newsletter focused on helping readers...
Max Hipp
Max's stories have appeared in
Black Warrior Review, Cheap Pop, SmokeLong Quarterly,
and
Southern Humanities Review
. He teaches literature...
DeAndra Hodge
DeAndra is an award winning illustrator, graphic designer, storyteller and teacher based in Washington D.C. She's illustrated over ten children's books including ...
Chad Holley
Chad grew up in Yazoo City, Mississippi. He earned an MFA in creative writing in Greensboro, North Carolina and a law degree in...
Jasmine L. Holmes
Jasmine is a passionate writer and educator who celebrates Black stories through her books, including
Carved in Ebony, Mother to Son
,...
Alan Huffman
Alan is a journalist and author of five nonfiction books: Ten Point; Mississippi in Africa; Sultana; We’re With...
Jenny Jackson
Jenny is Vice President, Editorial Director of Fiction at Alfred A. Knopf. She publishes a range of literary and commercial fiction, from Gabrielle...
Tiffany D. Jackson
Tiffany is the
New York Times
bestselling, award-winning author of YA novels
Monday's Not Coming, Allegedly, Let Me Hear A
...
Fatemeh Jamalpour
Fatemeh is a feminist freelance journalist banned from working in Iran by the Ministry of Intelligence. She has contributed to
The Sunday
...
Bret Anthony Johnston
Bret is the author of the internationally bestselling novel
Remember Me Like This
, which was a
New York Times
Notable Book...
Annie B. Jones
Annie owns The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia, where she's lived happily with her husband Jordan for more than...
Tony Jones
Tony is the author of
The God of Wild Places: Rediscovering the Divine
in the
Untamed Outdoors
...
Abbott Kahler
Abbott, formerly writing as Karen Abbott, is the New York Times bestselling author of Sin in the Second City; American Rose; Liar, Temptress,...
Beth Kander
Beth is a
USA Today
best-selling novelist and dramatist with tangled roots in the Midwest and Deep South. Described as a ...
