2015 Festival

• Brannon Costello, Comics and the U.S. South, Moderator
• Marshall Ramsey, Banjo’s Dream
• Mike McCarthy, Kid Anarchy
• Mary Katherine Spencer, as Horseradish Hen, You Have Permission; 12 Dreams for the One Who Tends Lavender
• Tim Fielder, Matty’s Rocket

Presented by

• Amanda Nelson, Managing Editor Book Riot, Moderator
• Kerry Madden, Up Close: Harper Lee
• Sterling Plumpp, Home/Bass: Poems
• W. Ralph Eubanks, The House at the End of the Road: The Story of Three Generations of an Interracial Family in the American South
• Beth Ann Fennelly, Open House: Poems, Unmentionables: Poems, and The Titled World: A Novel

Presented by

• Diane Williams, Mississippi Folk and the Tales They Tell: Myths, Legends and Bald-Faced Lies, Moderator
• Alysia Burton Steele, Delta Jewels: In Search of My Grandmother’s Wisdom
• Stephen A. Berrey, The Jim Crow Routine: Everyday Performances of Race, Civil Rights, and Segregation in Mississippi
• George Worlasi Kwasi Dor, West African Drumming and Dance in North American Universities
• Michael Vinson Williams, Medgar Evers: Mississippi Martyr

Presented by

• Matthew Guinn, The Scribe, Moderator
• Mary Miller, The Last Days of California
• Deborah Johnson, The Secret of Magic
• MO Walsh, My Sunshine Away
• Steve Yarbrough, The Realm of Last Chances

Presented by

• Ellen Ruffin, Curator de Grummond Children’s Literature Collection, University of Southern Mississippi, Moderator
• Sarah Campbell, Wolfsnail, Growing Patterns, Mysterious Patterns
• Sarah Frances Hardy, Dress Me!
• Susan Eaddy, Poppy’s Best Paper
• Hester Bass, The Secret World of Walter Anderson, Seeds of Freedom
• Lori Nichols, Maple & Willow Apart
• Chris Barton, The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch

Presented by

• Polly Dement, Mississippi Entrepreneurs, Moderator
• Joel Bomgar
• Toni Cooley
• Monica Sethi Harrigill
• John Palmer

Presented by

• Michael Kardos, Before He Finds Her, Moderator
• Andrew Malan Milward, I Was a Revolutionary
• Margaret McMullan, The Aftermath Lounge
• William Boyle, Death Don’t Have No Mercy

Presented by

• Peggy Whitman Prenshaw, Humanities Scholar in Residence, Millsaps College, Composing Selves: Southern Women and Autobiography, Moderator
• Suzanne Marrs and Tom Nolan, Meanwhile There Are Letters: The Correspondence of Eudora Welty and Ross Macdonald
• Julia Eichelberger, Tell About Night Flowers: Eudora Welty’s Gardening Letters
• Sally Wolff, A Dark Rose: Love in Eudora Welty’s Stories and Novels

• Howard Bahr, Visiting Writer, Belhaven University, Black Flower, The Year of Jubilo, The Judas Field, Pelican Road, Moderator
• Matthew Guinn, The Scribe
• Steve Yates, The Teeth of the Souls
• Katy Simpson Smith, The Story of Land and Sea
• Jeffrey Stayton, This Side of the River

• Mary Emrick, Turning Pages Books & More, Moderator
• Aaron McCarver and Diane Ashley, Song of the River
• Pam Hillman, Stealing Jake, Claiming Mariah
• Beth White, The Creole Princess and The Pelican Bride

Presented by

• Robby Luckett, Director Margaret Walker Center for the Study of the African-American Experience, Jackson State University, Joe T. Patterson and the White South’s Dilemma, Moderator
• Tiyi Morris, Womanpower Unlimited and the Black Freedom Struggle in Mississippi
• Jon Hale, To Write in the Light of Freedom
• Aram Goudsouzian, Down to the Crossroads
• Devery Anderson, Emmit Till: The Murder That Shocked the World and Propelled the Civil Rights Movement

• Margaret McMullan, The Aftermath Lounge, Moderator
• Kimberly Willis Holt, Dear Hank Williams
• Deborah Wiles, Revolution
• Taylor Kitchings, Yard War
• Greg Leitich Smith, Little Green Men at the Mercury Inn
• Cassie Beasley, Circus Mirandus
• Carolyn Brown, Song of My Life: A Biography of Margaret Walker

Presented by

• Robert St. John, Mississippi Restaurateur, Author, and Food Columnist, Moderator
• Martha Hall Foose, A Southerly Course
• John Currence, Mississippi Restauranteur and Author Pickles, Pigs, and Whiskey: Recipes from My Three Favorite Food Groups and Then Some
• Deborah Hunter, Host of MPB’s Deep South Dining
• Dixie Grimes, The B.T.C. Old Fashioned Grocery Cookbook

Presented by

• Michael Farris Smith, Rivers, Moderator
• Jamie Kornegay, Soil
• Michael Kardos, Before He Finds Her
• R. B. Chesterton, The Darkling
• Lisa Howorth, Flying Shoes

• Beth Ann Fennelly, Director MFA Program, University of Mississippi, Open House: Poems, Unmentionables: Poems, and The Tilted World: A Novel, Moderator
• Derrick Harriell, Cotton
• Catherine Pierce, The Girls of Peculiar
• Richard Boada, The Error of Nostalgia

Presented by

• Curtis Wilkie, Fellow at Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics, University of Mississippi, Assassins, Eccentrics, Politicians, and Other Persons of Interest, Moderator
• Haley Barbour, America’s Great Storm
• Don Thompson, Stennis: Ploughing a Straight Furrow
• Stuart Stevens, The Last Season: A Father, A Son, and a Lifetime of College Football
• Dennis Mitchell, A New History of Mississippi
• Minion K.C. Morrison, Aaron Henry of Mississippi: Inside Agitator

• John Grisham
• Jerry Mitchell, MacArthur Fellow
• William Ferris, University of North Carolina

Presented by

• Tim Isbell, Vicksburg: Sentinels of Stone, Shiloh: Sentinels of Stone, Moderator
• Michael Ballard, The Civil War in Mississippi: Major Campaigns and Battles
• Timothy Smith, Mississippi in the Civil War: The Home Front
• Thomas (Tom) Parson, Work for Giants: The Campaign and Battles of Tupelo/Harrisburg
• Justin S. Solonick, Engineering Victory: The Union Siege of Vicksburg

Presented by

• Emily Gatlin, Book Riot Contributing Writer, Moderator
• Julie Cantrell, The Feathered Bone
• Patti Callahan Henry, The Idea of Love
• Mary Kay Andrews, Beach Town
• Joshilyn Jackson, Someone Else’s Love Story
• Sara Gruen, At the Water’s Edge

PRESENTED BY

• Rick Cleveland
• Billy Watkins
• Mike Christensen
• Don Jackson
• Sid Salter

Presented by

• Robby Luckett, Director Margaret Walker Center for the Study of the African-American Experience, Jackson State University, Joe T. Patterson and the White South’s Dilemma, Moderator
• Carolyn Brown, Song of My Life:A Biography of Margaret Walker
• Suzanne Marrs, Meanwhile There Are Letters: The Correspondence of Eudora Welty and Ross Macdonald
• Julia Eichelberger, Tell About Night Flowers: Eudora Welty’s Gardening Letters
• Alferdteen Harrison, Black Exodus: The Great Migration from the American South

Presented by

• William Ferris, Moderator
• Ellen Gilchrist
• Greg Iles
• Julia Reed
• Steve Yarbrough