Mississippi Book Festival

Each August, the Mississippi Book Festival unites readers and authors in an exhilarating celebration of books. Saturday, August 19, 2023 from 9:00 am – 5:00 pm Mississippi State Capitol Building & grounds 400 High St, Jackson, MS 39201 Free & open to the public  

Read of the Month: “Red Clay Suzie” by Jeffrey Dale Lofton

Named as one of the most anticipated LGBTQIA+ books of 2022 by Lambda Lambda Literary and winner of the Seven Hills Literary Prize for Fiction, Red Clay Suzie (Post Hill Press) was absolutely captivating. Calling it a page-turner does not do it justice, though its short chapters, sometimes only a few pages in length, make […]

Dawn Major interviews Jeffrey D. Lofton, author of “Red Clay Suzie”

Associate Editor Dawn Major recently had the opportunity to meet Jeffrey Dale Lofton at her virtual book launch for her debut novel, The Bystanders. Lofton embodies what one might imagine to be the epitome of a Southern gentleman—poised, articulate, perfect manners, and wearing a smart bowtie. It’s hard to imagine that underneath all his Southern […]

Dawn Major interviews Robert Gwaltney

Dawn Major has followed author Robert Gwaltney’s writing career and has been delighted to watch it grow in leaps and bounds after a very successful reception of his debut novel, The Cicada Tree. Since running into him at a fellow author reading at FoxTale Book Shop a couple of years ago, she counts him as […]

Dawn Major interviews Mary Ellen Thompson

Introduction: When Associate Editor, Dawn Major, heard that Robert Gwaltney, author of The Cicada Tree, had been selected as the Pat Conroy Literary Center’s writer in residency, she asked him to write about his experience. Gwaltney wrote a sublime piece called “Lick the Sherbet Sky,” where he kept alluding to an individual by the name […]

Dawn Major interviews Gregory Ariail, author of “The Gospel of Rot”

Dawn Major discovered Gregory Ariail’s debut novel, The Gospel of Rot, through Mercer University Press, a publisher of Southern authors and/or books on Southern themes. issues, and interests. She was immediately taken in by the description on the back of the book and knew The Gospel of Rot would prove to be complex and challenging […]