2024 Festival

Presented by Visit Mississippi

Founded in 2014 by Holly Lange and Jere Nash, the Mississippi Book Festival brings together booklovers of all ages and backgrounds to celebrate the joy of reading and to nurture a culture of literacy and ideas. Free and open to the public, this one-day event features panel discussions, keynote speakers, booksellers, author signings, live music, family-friendly activities, and more. Fondly referred to as “The South’s Literary Lawn Party,” the festival takes place in and around the grounds of the historic Mississippi State Capitol and nearby Galloway Memorial United Methodist Church. This beloved annual event seeks to honor Mississippi’s rich literary tradition, both past and present, while welcoming contemporary authors from around the world.

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Presented by Carolyn & Chris Ray; Hon. David Neil McCarty

Nina Parikh, director of the Mississippi Film Office, speaks with native Jacksonian and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Beth Henley about her acclaimed work Crimes of the Heart.

• Nina Parikh (moderator)
• Beth Henley, Crimes of the Heart

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Presented by Hope Credit Union; Mississippi Department of Archives & History
Coverage provided by C-SPAN
Room by BarbourHurst

Join these authors as they examine the economic exploitation, political resistance, and powerful narratives that have shaped African American history, showcasing the resilience and triumphs of a people in the face of oppression and systemic challenges.

• Michael Morris (moderator)
• Jasmine L. Holmes, Yonder Come Day: Exploring the Collective Witness of the Formerly Enslaved
• Andrew W. Kahrl, The Black Tax: 150 Years of Theft, Exploitation, and Dispossession in America
• Mark Whitaker, Saying It Loud: 1966—The Year Black Power Challenged the Civil Rights Movement

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Presented by Charles Brasfield Grant IV

Imagined versions of our past and future are posed in these novels, from fictitious communities gone wrong to dystopian extensions of our current reality.

• Jerid P. Woods (moderator)
• Nicola Yoon, One of Our Kind
• Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Chain Gang All-Stars
• Phillip B. Williams, Ours
• Cebo Campbell, Sky Full of Elephants

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Presented by Bethany & Lucien Smith; The Perry/Posey Families in Honor of Alice Perry

Captains and castaways are studied in these historical accounts with a real cast of characters as riveting and mercurial as the sea they sail.

• Speaker Pro Tempore Manly Barton (moderator)
• Eric Jay Dolin, Left for Dead: Shipwreck, Treachery, and Survival at the Edge of the World
• Hampton Sides, The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook

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Presented by Mississippi Humanities Council

Mississippi Humanities Council Prison Book Clubs have been called a transformative experience, offering incarcerated men and women a chance to move beyond merely existing to truly engaging with life, despite the limitations of their environment. These clubs create a safe space for sharing ideas, broadening perspectives and building positive connections. Join us to hear firsthand from book club members and facilitators about how participating in a book club can profoundly impact life behind bars.

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Presented by Atmos Energy

Join beloved cartoonist and picture book author Marshall Ramsey for story time with his latest book Saving Sam!: A Banjo the Dog Story. Then, enjoy a storyboarding workshop with Marshall as he teaches budding storytellers how to illustrate a story from start to finish. All participants will walk away with a copy of Marshall’s new book thanks to Atmos Energy and their support of the Mississippi Book Festival’s year-round student initiative, Turn the Page.

• Marshall Ramsey, Saving Sam!: A Banjo the Dog Story

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Presented by Marie & Brian Sanderson; Lesly Gaynor Murray in Memory of Stephen C. Edds

Gain a deeper understanding of Mississippi’s natural beauty and one of our best known artists.

• Scott Naugle (moderator)
• Ken Murphy, My South Coast Home Revisited
• John G. Anderson, The Bicycle Logs of Walter Anderson
• Wesley L. Shoop, Mississippi's Natural Heritage: Photographs of Flora and Fauna

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Presented by University of Mississippi Office of the Provost

Poets unpack their tenderly wrought collections of loss and memory, community, and isolation.

• C. Liegh McInnis (moderator)
• Leona Sevick, The Bamboo Wife
• Hannah V Warren, Slaughterhouse for Old Wives' Tales
• A. H. Jerriod Avant, Muscadine
• Adam Clay, Circle Back

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Presented by Forvis Mazars; Bob Montgomery

Espionage, mayhem, and romance intertwine as mystery writers weave webs of deception their characters must unravel in three novels with a distinct sense of time and place.

• Valerie Walley (moderator)
• Joseph Kanon, Shanghai
• Snowden Wright, The Queen City Detective Agency
• Juliet Grames, The Lost Boy of Santa Chionia

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Presented by The Eudora Welty Foundation

Children’s literature expert Ellen Hunter Ruffin speaks with two-time Newbery Medalist Kate DiCamillo about the author’s latest story of a plucky young girl, her quirky family, and a not-so-scary ghost that longs for adventure.

• Ellen Hunter Ruffin (moderator)
• Kate DiCamillo, Ferris

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Presented by Ginnie & Luther Munford; Louisa Dixon & Jerry Johnson

Studies of Blues artists help to highlight the true importance of the genre in the furthering of American music and to celebrate the lives of the musicians who started it all.

• Mississippi Senator John Horhn (moderator)
• Ben Wynne, A Hound Dog Tale: Big Mama, Elvis, and the Song That Changed Everything
• Margo Cooper, Deep Inside the Blues: Photographs and Interviews

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Presented by The Source by BankPlus; Wilma Wagner Cleveland

Southern novels are haunted by figurative and literal ghosts as their protagonists encounter familiar strangers and mysterious loved-ones.

• Lauren Rhoades (moderator)
• Mary Annaïse Heglar, Troubled Waters
• Minrose Gwin, Beautiful Dreamers
• Jamie Quatro, Two-Step Devil
• Gerry Wilson, That Pinson Girl

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Presented by The Grenn Family; Rebecca & Ty Hardy

Tales of old become new in these retellings that draw from the wisdom of classic stories reimagined in fresh settings.

• Katy Simpson Smith, The Weeds (moderator)
• Rachel Lyon, Fruit of the Dead
• Julia Phillips, Bear
• Jen Fawkes, Daughters of Chaos
• Katya Apekina, Mother Doll

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Presented by Crooks Foundation

Richard Grant, reporter and author of Dispatches from Pluto: Lost and Found in the Mississippi Delta, speaks about his new memoir about moving to Arizona with his wife and child in the midst of a truly wild time for the state.

• Mary Miller, Biloxi (moderator)
• Richard Grant, A Race to the Bottom of Crazy: Dispatches from Arizona

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What does it take to lead a creative life every day? This workshop will share ideas and perspectives for putting your own creativity first and include a talk, writing prompts with a group write-along, and a Q&A. Jami Attenberg will also explain the development of the worldwide literary movement #1000wordsofsummer, her wildly popular, grassroots movement which inspired a book length extension of it.

• Jami Attenberg, 1000 Words: A Writer's Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All Year Round
  

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Join Mississippi Poet Laureate Catherine Pierce, creator of the Mississippi Youth Poetry Project, as she instructs the youngest festival-goers on how to express themselves in verse.

• Catherine Pierce, Danger Days: Poems

Stop by State Capitol 201 A at 2:45 pm to hear award-winning poems from various winners across the state!

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Presented by Janet & Luther Ott; Nancy & Cecil Brown

These authors discuss their stories at all different ages and paces in their memoirs as intriguing and singular as they are.

• Dustin Parsons, Exploded View: Essays on Fatherhood, with Diagrams (moderator)
  
• Priyanka Mattoo, Bird Milk & Mosquito Bones: A Memoir
• Joseph Earl Thomas, Sink: A Memoir
• Julian Randall, The Dead Don't Need Reminding: In Search of Fugitives, Mississippi, and Black TV Nerd Shit

SCHEDULE UPDATE: Due to unforeseen circumstances, Julian Randall will not be in attendance at the festival.

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Presented by Candace L. & John F. Kime; University of Southern Mississippi Dale Center for the Study of War & Society
Coverage provided by C-SPAN
Room by BarbourHurst

Garrett M. Graff, journalist, historian, and Pulitzer Prize Finalist, recounts the dramatic and heroic moments of D-Day—from the secret creation of landing planes by top government and military officials and the organization of troops to the moment the boat doors opened to reveal the beach where men fought for their lives and the future of the free world.

• Heather Marie Stur, 21 Days to Baghdad: General Buford Blount and the 3^rd Infantry Division in the Iraq War (moderator)
• Garrett M. Graff, When the Sea Came Alive: An Oral History of D-Day

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Presented by Jones Walker LLP; Jackie Posey Bailey

Friends and fellow creatives discuss the art of shaping a story in their various genres.

• Betsy Bradley (moderator)
• Noah Saterstrom, What Became of Dr. Smith
• Ann Patchett, Tom Lake + The Verts
• Kate DiCamillo, Ferris

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Presented by Julie & Brad Chism; Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

Get an in-depth look at the waterways that connect our towns, provide our sustenance, and thus dictate our lives in this insightful panel on the many rivers that traverse our state.

• Patrick Dean, Nature's Messenger: Mark Catesby and His Adventures in a New World (moderator)
• Boyce Upholt, The Great River: The Making and Unmaking of the Mississippi
• Ernest Herndon, Paddleways of Mississippi: Rivers and People of the Magnolia State
• Patrick Parker, Paddleways of Mississippi: Rivers and People of the Magnolia State

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Presented by Fay B. Kaigler Children’s Book Festival; University of Southern Mississippi de Grummond Children’s Literature Collection

Picture book authors and illustrators honor and delight in family, food, and nature in this panel of 2024 Ezra Jack Keats Award-winners and honorees.

• Ellen Hunter Ruffin (moderator)
• Anne Wynter, Nell Plants a Tree
• Sarah Gonzales, The Only Way to Make Bread
• Kim Rogers, Just Like Grandma
• Helena Ku Rhee, Sora's Seashells

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Presented by Friendly City Books; University of Mississippi Department of English

Two decades’ worth of poems trace award-winning poet Major Jackson’s evolution as a writer, and the course of American culture in this millennium, in Jackson’s newest collection.

• Beth Ann Fennelly, Heating & Cooling: 52 Micro-Memoirs (moderator)
• Major Jackson, Razzle Dazzle: New and Selected Poems 2002-2022

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Presented by Terry Hunt & Dick Molpus; Beard + Riser Architects

Four middle grade authors celebrate determined young characters who defy odds, hunt for treasure, and find magic.

• Sami Thomason-Fyke (moderator)
• Taryn Souders, The Mystery of the Radcliffe Riddle
• Angie Thomas, Nic Blake and the Remarkables: The Manifestor Prophecy
• Sarah-SoonLing Blackburn, Exclusion and the Chinese American Story
• Julian Randall, The Chainbreakers

SCHEDULE UPDATE: Due to unforeseen circumstances, Angie Thomas and Julian Randall will not be in attendance at the festival. 

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Presented by Capitol Resources, LLC; Balch & Bingham LLP

Steve Gleason, former New Orleans Saints safety and recent recipient of the 2024 Arthur Ashe Courage Award, talks to his wife Michel and co-author Jeff Duncan about A Life Impossible, his new memoir about his thirteen year journey with ALS.

• Jeff Duncan, A Life Impossible: Living with ALS: Finding Peace and Wisdom Within a Fragile Existence (moderator)
• Steve Gleason, A Life Impossible: Living with ALS: Finding Peace and Wisdom Within a Fragile Existence
• Michel Gleason

SCHEDULE UPDATE: Due to unforeseen circumstances, Steve and Michel Gleason will not be in attendance at the festival. Jeff Duncan, Steve’s co-author, will be in conversation discussing writing the book with Steve.

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Presented by The H.T. White Family Fund; University of Southern Mississippi University Forum

Poetic prose and lyrical meditations on food and culture examine the power memory has on what we choose to eat.

• Cree Myles (moderator)
• Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Bite by Bite: Nourishments and Jamborees
• Crystal Wilkinson, Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts: Stories and Recipes from Five Generations of Black Country Cooks

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Presented by Margaret Walker Center at Jackson State University; The MAX: Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience

In this intimate and searching meditation, former US Poet Laureate and Mississippi native Natasha Trethewey revisits the geography of her childhood to trace the origins of her writing life in a volume so lyrically intricate and beautiful, it could only be written by such a master of poetry.

• Robert E. Luckett, Jr., Redefining Liberal Arts Education in the Twenty-First Century (moderator)
• Natasha Trethewey, The House of Being

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Presented by Jackson State University

Authors make history and magic come to life in these enthralling tales of sirens, dragons, and Greek mythology reimagined.

• Ebony Lumumba (moderator)
• O.O. Sangoyomi, Masquerade
• Jenn Lyons, The Sky on Fire
• Gabi Burton, Drown Me with Dreams

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Presented by The Selby & Richard McRae Foundation

The first ever class of South Arts Fellows for Literary Arts discusses their works of fiction that earned them their fellowships, as well as how living in the South has informed these works and shaped them as a writer.

• John T. Edge, The Potlikker Papers: A Food History of the Modern South (moderator)
• Maurice Carlos Ruffin, The American Daughters
• Melissa Ginsburg, Doll Apollo: Poems
• Randi Pink, We Are the Scribes
• Ashley Blooms, Where I Can’t Follow
• Joanna Pearson, Bright and Tender Dark
• Camille Boxhill
• Constance Collier-Mercado
• F.E. Choe
• Yurina Yoshikawa

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Presented by Mississippi Today
Coverage provided by C-SPAN
Room by BarbourHurst

These Pulitzer Prize-winners and finalists discuss their noteworthy journalistic endeavors and the process of research and reporting.

• Layne Bruce (moderator)
• Anna Wolfe (journalist)
• Jerry Mitchell, Race Against Time: A Report Reopens the Unsolved Murder Cases of the Civil Rights Era 
• Brody Mullins, The Wolves of K Street: The Secret History of How Big Money Took Over Big Government

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In this workshop for mothers and caregivers, we will seek inspiration from the Mississippi River, full of ever-changing twists and loops. What can the River’s pathways across time teach us about our own mothering journeys and who we are in this season? Let’s get curious together on the page.

• Catherine Simone Gray, Proud Flesh: A Memoir of Motherhood, Intimate Violence, and Reclaiming Pleasure (2025)

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Presented by Holly & Alan Lange; Mississippi State University Libraries

Best-sellers, edited by Doubleday’s vice president and executive editor Lee Boudreaux, live up to their hype as poignant studies of coming-of-age as an adult and all the complexities of relationships as they ebb and flow.

• Todd Doughty, Little Pieces of Hope: Happy-Making Things in a Difficult World (moderator)
• Ron Rash, The Caretaker
• Claire Lombardo, Same As It Ever Was
• Lee Boudreaux (vice president & executive editor Doubleday)

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Presented by Mississippi State University College of Arts & Sciences; Friends of Virginia Wilson Mounger

Literary Westerns contain all the exciting elements of the classic genre—unassuming heroes, dangerous escapades in the name of justice, sweeping romances, and more—with the fresh, sharp voices of contemporary literary fiction.

• Beverly Lowry, Deer Creek Drive: A Reckoning of Memory and Murder in the Mississippi Delta (moderator)
• Elizabeth Crook, The Madstone
• Paulette Jiles, Chenneville

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Presented by the Mississippi Museum of Art

Round out a morning of creativity with Anna Lyons, an art educator at MMA, learning how to craft your own book! For ages 8-12 and space is limited to 25 participants.

• Anna Lyons

Note: This is a two-hour workshop.

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Presented by Frontier Strategies

From the campaign trail to the oval office, these insiders give their perspectives on the presidential politics currently dominating our headlines as we head into the 2024 election.

• Jonathan Martin, This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America’s Future (moderator) 
• Jonathan Karl, Tired of Winning: Donald Trump and the End of the Grand Old Party

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Presented by Sara & Bill Ray; The Ragland Company

Families are invited to join the authors and illustrators of picture books for an incredible learning experience about animals, music, and nature.

• Sarah Frances Hardy, One Mississippi (moderator)
• Mary Annaïse Heglar, The World is Ours to Cherish: A Letter to a Child
• Heather C. Morris, Trunk Goes Thunk!: A Woodland Tale of Opposites
• Allen R. Wells, Danté Plays His Blues
• Marshall Ramsey, Saving Sam!: A Banjo the Dog Story

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Presented by Argent Wealth; Pass Christian Books & Cat Island Coffeehouse

LeVar Burton, legendary actor and host of Reading Rainbow, speaks with Jesmyn Ward, two-time National Book Award winner and lifelong Mississippian, about her newest novel, a meditation on grief and memory through the story of a young girl’s fight for freedom in the face of enslavement.

• LeVar Burton 
• Jesmyn Ward, Let Us Descend

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Presented by University of Southern Mississippi College of Arts & Sciences

Delicious collections draw from the wisdom of the Deep South and far-flung countries to create meals as captivating as they are comforting.

• Enrika Williams (moderator)
• Robert St. John, Mississippi Mornings
• Dale Gray, South of Somewhere: Recipes and Stories from My Life in South Africa, South Korea & the American South
• Ann Taylor Pittman, The Global Pantry Cookbook: Transform Your Everyday Cooking with Tahini, Gochujang, Miso, and Other Irresistible Ingredients
• Anne Byrn, Baking in the American South: 200 Recipes and Their Untold Stories (A Definitive Guide to Southern Baking)

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Presented by Forman Watkins & Krutz LLP; The Roost & The Springs Hotel in Ocean Springs, MS
Coverage provided by C-SPAN
Room by BarbourHurst

These books of scandal and corruption shed light on how power is found and abused in unlikely ways.

• Betsy Fischer Martin (moderator)
• Brody Mullins, The Wolves of K Street: The Secret History of How Big Money Took Over Big Government
• Shad White, Mississippi Swindle: Brett Favre and the Welfare Scandal that Shocked America
• Luke Mullins, The Wolves of K Street: The Secret History of How Big Money Took Over Big Government

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Presented by The McMullan / O’Connor Fund; University of Southern Mississippi College of Arts & Sciences

Sebastian Junger, award-winning war journalist and lifelong atheist, discusses a near-death experience that led him to rethink what, exactly, happens after we die.

• Sebastian Junger, In My Time of Dying: How I Came Face to Face with the Idea of an Afterlife
  

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Presented by Mississippi Votes; Nautilus Publishing

Mississippi authors discuss their uniquely true stories of unlikely success and powerful connections.

• Ellen Ann Fentress, The Steps We Take: A Memoir of Southern Reckoning (moderator)
• Di Rushing, The Delta in the Rearview: The Life and Death of Mississippi’s First Winery
• J.L. Holloway, Nothing To Lose: A Story of Poverty, Resilience, and Gratitude
• Marion Garrard Barnwell, All the Things We Didn’t Say: Two Memoirs
• X.M. Frascogna, Jr., The Saints of St. Mary’s: A true story of old school values and parenting lessons learned through youth sports

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Presented by University of Southern Mississippi Center for Writers

Take the road less traveled in this writing workshop led by graduate students from the University of Southern Mississippi’s Center for Writers.

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Presented by PATH Company; Beth & Chip Pickering

These portraits of characters finding themselves in the face of real-life disasters speak to the life lived in-between the headlines and the human ability to adapt in the face of adversity.

• Darden North, Party Favors (moderator)
• Julie Liddell Whitehead, Hurricane Baby: Stories
• Steve Yates, The Lakes of Southern Hollow
• R. J. Lee, The Majestic Leo Marble

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Presented by Mississippi State University Department of Communications; Friends of the Community Foundation of Washington County

Whether you're a lifelong Mississippian or a curious visitor, you'll come away from this panel with a deeper appreciation for the state's complex and compelling culture.

• Germaine Flood (moderator)
• Joe Lee, Raphael’s Men
• Diane Williams, A Guide to Mississippi Museums: History and Guide
• Josh Foreman, Wicked Mississippi
• Lawrence Wells, Ghostwriter: Shakespeare, Literary Landmines, and an Eccentric Patron’s Royal Obsession

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Presented by Cornerstone Consulting Group, Inc

Thrilling stories of evil forces, supernatural or otherwise, speak to the dangers of isolation and prejudice.

• Jimmy Cajoleas, Gussy (moderator)
• Gabino Iglesias, House of Bone and Rain
• Shaun Hamill, The Dissonance
• Lee Mandelo, The Woods All Black

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Presented by Katie McClendon

These stories follow the search for justice and answers as their characters’ ideologies are challenged by some disruption to the world they thought they knew.

• Tracy Carr (moderator)
• Henry Wise, Holy City
• Eli Cranor, Broiler

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Presented by Oxford Conference For the Book; Friends of the Library at the University of Mississippi

Friends, editor, and student of iconic Mississippi writer Brad Watson share their memories and thoughts on his legacy in the face of his new, posthumously-published short story collection, There Is Happiness.

• Tom Franklin, Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter (moderator)
• Alane Salierno Mason (editor for Brad Watson)
• M.O. Walsh, The Big Door Prize
• Steve Yarbrough, Stay Gone Days

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Presented by The McMullan / O’Connor Fund; Millsaps College

Journalist and best-selling author Erik Larson talks with fellow writer Margaret McMullan about his newest book: a narrative-driven nonfiction account of the tumultuous five months between Abraham Lincoln’s election and the onset of the Civil War.

• Margaret McMullan (moderator)
• Erik Larson, The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War

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Presented by Mississippi Today
Coverage provided by C-SPAN
Room by BarbourHurst

Journalists-turned-authors tell the true stories of the lives of two men who sparked revolutions in these Pulitzer Prize-winning biographies of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and George Floyd.

• Kelly Lytle Hernández (moderator)
• Jonathan Eig, King: A Life
• Robert Samuels, His Name Is George Floyd: One Man's Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice

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Presented by The Eudora Welty Foundation; Mississippi Department of Archives & History; Anonymous in Honor of Professor Suzanne Marrs

Presented by those who knew and loved her best, a new book and film offer a fresh look at the beloved Mississippi author.

• Anthony Thaxton, Eudora (moderator)
• Robert St. John, Mississippi Mornings
• W. Ralph Eubanks, A Place Like Mississippi: A Journey Through a Real and Imagined Literary Landscape
• Mary Alice Welty White (Former Director Eudora Welty House)
• Suzanne Marrs, Meanwhile There Are Letters: The Correspondence of Eudora Welty and Ross MacDonald
• William Dunlap, The Fine Art of Singing for One's Supper and Other Stories

NOTE: This is a two-hour session featuring a panel and film.

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Presented by Moore Media Group; University of Southern Mississippi School of Library & Information Science

These gripping reads, edited by Jenny Jackson, Knopf's VP and editorial director of fiction as well as a best-selling author, are binge-worthy stories ranging from delightful to dangerous, and everything in between.

• Jenny Jackson, Pineapple Street (moderator)
• J. Courtney Sullivan, The Cliffs
• Chris Bohjalian, The Princess of Las Vegas
• Helen Ellis, Kiss Me in the Coral Lounge: Intimate Confessons from a Happy Marriage

SCHEDULE UPDATE: Due to unforeseen circumstances, J. Courtney Sullivan will not be in attendance at the festival.

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Presented by Mississippi Humanities Council; Mississippi State University Department of English

K-12 student poets from across the state share their award-winning poems in this celebratory panel hosted by Mississippi Poet Laureate Catherine Pierce.

• Catherine Pierce, Danger Days: Poems (moderator)
• Various winners from around the state

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Presented by Mississippi Humanities Council; Wise Carter Child & Caraway, P.A.

Knockout authors tell generational stories about the search for belonging in America in their critically-acclaimed novels.

• Traci Thomas (moderator)
• Rachel Khong, Real Americans
• Kaveh Akbar, Martyr!
• Sheila Sundar, Habitations

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Presented by Mississippi Humanities Council; University of Southern Mississippi Center for the Study of the Gulf South
Coverage provided by C-SPAN
Room by BarbourHurst

Prepare to be moved, challenged, and enlightened as we confront the shadows of our past and chart a course toward a more just future. This is more than a panel—it's a necessary reckoning.

• Rebecca Tuuri (moderator)
• Tracie McMillan, The White Bonus: Five Families and the Cash Value of Racism in America
• Kidada E. Williams, I Saw Death Coming: A History of Terror and Survival in the War Against Reconstruction
• Grace Elizabeth Hale, In the Pines: A Lynching, A Lie, A Reckoning
• Dionne Ford, Go Back and Get It: A Memoir of Race, Inheritance, and Intergenerational Healing

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Presented by LGBTQ Fund of Mississippi; NEH, through its United We Stand Initiative

In these works of memoir and fiction alike, authors describe the tumultuous journey of self-discovery in the face of people and places that are not so accepting.

• Mississippi Representative Fabian Nelson (moderator)
• Mesha Maren, Shae
• KB Brookins, Pretty
• Jonathan Corcoran, No Son of Mine

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Presented by Frontier Strategies

Journalists and historians discuss the long-term impact of political campaigns on governance, examining how electoral victories and the influence of deep-pocketed interests translate into policy shifts and the evolution of party platforms.

• Jonathan Allen, Lucky: How Joe Biden Barely Won the Presidency (moderator)
• Luke Mullins, The Wolves of K Street: The Secret History of How Big Money Took Over Big Government
  
• Paul M. Sparrow, Awakening the Spirit of America: FDR's War of Words With Charles Lindbergh–and the Battle to Save Democracy
• Jonathan Martin, This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America’s Future
• Jonathan Karl, Tired of Winning: Donald Trump and the End of the Grand Old Party

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Presented by The McMullan/O’Connor Fund; Millsaps College

Nature versus nurture isn’t just a question for scientists in this workshop. Explore the ways character and setting are interconnected and how to use those connections as tools to build characters that leap off the page and define settings to showcase them. Appropriate for all ages.

• Liz Egan

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Presented by Danny Cupit; Pigott Law Firm

The past is creatively reimagined in these novels as characters seek to right wrongs in all kinds of exciting eras and dangerous situations.

• Crystal Forte (moderator)
• Maurice Carlos Ruffin, The American Daughters
• Avery Cunningham, The Mayor of Maxwell Street
• Jeff Barry, Go to Hell Ole Miss
• Allison Alsup, Foreign Seed

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Presented by Fischer Galleries; University of Mississippi Center for the Study of Southern Culture

In a discussion spanning both form and genre, these surveyors of the South reflect on what makes the region so distinct, by exploring its geography and cultural impact with equal fervor.

• John T. Edge, The Potlikker Papers: A Food History of the Modern South (moderator)
• Boyce Upholt, The Great River: The Making and Unmaking of the Mississippi
• January Gill O'Neil, Glitter Road: Poems
• Kate Medley, Thank You Please Come Again: How Gas Stations Feed & Fuel the American South

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Presented by Betsy & Kane Ditto; University of Southern Mississippi Center for Writers

Up-and-coming authors discuss their debut novels: compelling takes on the complexities of community and relationships with all the innovative styles, original set-ups, and exciting locations that come with new voices in fiction.

• John Caleb Grenn (moderator)
• Alina Grabowski, Women and Children First
• Joseph Earl Thomas, God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer
• Ery Shin, Spring on the Peninsula
• Melissa Mogollon, Oye

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