Search Results for “The Cove” – Page 2

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Some years ago I met Tom in the fiction room and eventually we discovered that we both loved Murakami. We have had many conversations about books we love, but none so enthusiastic as the ones on Murakami. In all the anticipation for 1Q84, I asked Tom if he would like to join our blog series on Haruki Murakami. -Lisa

Here’s what Tom has to say:

The spring semester of my junior year of college was – without question – my worst. Within a stretch of about two weeks, Cancer forced itself into my family and Murder pointlessly ended the life of one of my dearest friends. Even now, the weeks and months that followed are blurry at best.

That summer, I discovered Murakami.

The nominal purpose of the summer was to conduct research for my thesis, but – whether it was clear to me or not at the time – the summer also served to remove me from a world that made no sense and whose foundations no longer seemed stable. Though I wasn’t aware of it, the financial crisis happened that summer, too.

I picked up Kafka on the Shore in a bookstore in D.C. – drawn by the back cover’s promise of talking cats, fish falling from the sky and prophecies. That summer, I needed – and more importantly, needed to believe in – all those things.

And, what Murakami gave me that summer was solace in chaos. Peace in grief. Life in absurdity. Constancy in change. Hope in loss.

I needed another world – perhaps where cats talk or soldiers never age – as an escape, and Kafka on the Shore – every time I read it on a subway or in a café – delivered.

It’s not very often – for me, at least – that books make me wholeheartedly want to live in the world that is described within them, but Murakami’s books did and still do that to me. They are stories where the journey is more important than the ending. And where the ending doesn’t always make sense. Where our questions – not the answers, necessarily – matter most.

But more important than my own personal experience with Murakami is how your experience will be. I envy everyone who has never picked him up before. I envy the discoveries that you’ll make and the characters that will speak to you – who maybe never spoke to me. I envy your first dive into a world where things are not as they seem – and where everything in this world, even for just a moment – seems possible, and dare I say, magical all over again.

1Q84 is on sale today!

Click here to see all of Haruki Murakmai’s books.

Click here to see other blog posts on Murakami.

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The Queen’s Daughter by Susan Coventry

By Diane

On August 26, 2010

In OZ: Young Adult Fiction

In The Queen’s Daughter our story begins with Princess Joan, age seven. Joan’s mother is Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine and her father is Henry II, the King of England. Queen Eleanor is beautiful and has a sharp tongue which she often uses on the King and any one who gets too close. King Henry II is a military man with three handsome sons and an often forgotten daughter—perhaps because she is so like her mother. Any time the parents get together, serious arguments erupt. The arguments are often due to political ambitions. Joan loves both of her parents, but how will she choose between them?

As often is the case with royalty, Joan is married off to a man who is older and a man that she does not love. However, she never forgets her childhood crush on Lord Raymond who came to her rescue when she was but a very young girl.

In much of the story, one feels that Joan is much older that she really is until a birthday is mentioned and you realize that she is very much a young girl. It must have been very difficult to grow up in a family where the mother was often banished to some far away castle. In spite of the many military crusades and campaigns this was an interesting story. A map is included to help visualize the great distance involved in the plot. (Teen, ages 14 and up)

Don’t judge a book by its cover (sometimes…)–Stacey Jay’s Undead series

By Former Lemurians

On March 29, 2010

In Oz: Children's Books, OZ: Young Adult Fiction

I don’t know how many times in this business I do just that, judge a book by its cover. I mean, with all the books out there, you have to find some way to weed out the good ones. So when I saw Stacey Jay’s books, no offense, I was not even tempted to read them. The titles didn’t really appeal to me either. But, they had been highly recommended by someone I trust, so I dove straight in….and didn’t come out until the first one was over! I love Stacey’s writing and her character Megan Berry is a butt-kicking, Zombie Settler who is always getting in trouble, but always accomplishing more than anyone thinks she will be able to. I am now on Stacey’s second book, Undead Much? and it is just as good as the first book. It doesn’t feel like just a retelling of the original story, but a continuation of the story I fell in love with. If you loved Twilight, but hated how whiny Bella and Edward were sometime (blasphemy, I know) then try out this book. And I promise, you will not be sorry!

And just for icing on the cake, Stacey Jay will be here on April 8th (NEXT THURSDAY!!!) and I am so excited to meet her. The great thing about these books is that they are in paperback, so you can get both, come to the signing and then just read them back to back! Come talk to Stacey about creating the characters of Megan and Ethan and why she decided to write about zombies. It’s a night you won’t want to miss!

Author Q & A with Hank Burdine

By Guest Author

On January 20, 2019

In Southern Culture

Interview by Jana Hoops. Special to the Clarion-Ledger Sunday print edition (January 20)

A Greenville native who strayed from his beloved Mississippi Delta to do a “walkabout” with his family in Colorado and Florida for a while, Hank Burdine has said since his return that he “really doesn’t care” if he “ever leaves the state lines of Mississippi again.”

The gentleman farmer, road builder, and author, who has gained a reputation as “the historian of the Delta,” has bestowed upon his fellow Deltans–and the rest of the world–a gift of memories and stories that may otherwise have been lost, with his newest book, Dust in the Road: Recollections of a Delta Boy (Coopwood Publishing Group).

The compilation of 60 essays about the people, places, foods, and culture of this enigmatic Mississippi region was gleaned from columns Burdine has contributed to issues of Delta Magazine since its beginning in 2003.

He has authored Mississippi Delta, The Flood of 2011 and was a contributor to The Delta: Landscapes, Legends, and Legacies of Mississippi’s Most Storied Region. He also co-authored, with Melody Golding, Panther Tract: Wild Boar Hunting in the Mississippi Delta.

Hank Burdine

Today Burdine lives on his farm in Chatham (near Greenville), where he hunts, writes, keeps an eye out for good stories, and, as author Richard Grant (Dispatches from Pluto) put it in his epilogue to Dust in the Road, is said to be “good at solving problems” for friends and neighbors.

And, as wild as some of his tales may seem, he emphasizes their authenticity.
“Many times,” Burdine said, “I have heard others say, ‘How do y’all make those stories up?’ Well, we don’t make them up, these things actually happened and are real!”

Below he discusses his book and his love for his home–the Mississippi Delta.

Tell me about your new book Dust in the Road: Recollections of a Delta Boy, and the stories you reveal in it.

I first started writing for Delta Magazine after I read the very first copy with Lee and Pup McCarty on the cover. While living in Florida, I contacted Delta Magazine and submitted a Final Word column titled ‘Mississippi will always be home.” Senior editor Melissa Townsend asked me to write an article and … it was published. The next month she contacted me and said, “Okay, what do you have for us this issue?” And, it has been like that ever since for over 68 articles.

Realizing that there was a book there of these articles, I decided to sort them out. The book just kind of fell into place. It has been such a great honor and pleasure to think of these stories, research and interview and “Dig up bones.” These stories are out there, and they just need to be pulled out and compiled and written down for posterity; if not, they will be lost forever.

The essays in your book recount much of the Delta’s past. Tell me about your research for information about those historical tales.

My research begins when an idea of a story or person comes to mind through conversation or just happenstance. Then I start calling friends and (checking out) newspapers, libraries and the internet, putting together a stack of papers from which to read and highlight until I sit down and start writing. It takes me most of a day to write an article and then another day to critique and edit what was written.

I have had some good editors at Delta Magazine to bounce off ideas. Of course, it’s a group effort, but I have been given the freedom to choose what I want to write about. It’s fun but it is damned hard work also.

The book is filled with stories of some of the region’s well-known artists, writers, musicians, and “indomitable characters.” Can you name a few among these whom you have personally known and who you believe have been particularly influential to the Delta’s culture?

The Elder Statesman of the Blues, Sam Chatmon, who “Gave Dignity to the Blues” was a dear friend of mine as was Son Thomas, Muriel Wilkins, the indomitable Duff Durrough, Eden Brent, and Jimmy Phillips. These bluesmen and blues women had a tremendous impact on the musical history and mystique of the Delta.

Literary greats Hodding Carter, Bern Keating, Julia Reed, Beverly Lowry, and Richard Grant were and are great and loving friends. Characters like Larry Pryor, Silky Sullivan, Joe Call, Hot Moore, John Ruskey and Bubba Tollison were all good friends and had an impact on my life and the stories I tell. Dinty Moore, the Doe Signa family, Anthony Herrera, Bill Beckwith and Leon Koury all were or are deep and dear friends.

What an honor it is to write for posterity the stories and lives of friends. And to be able to chronicle my son Matt’s personal odyssey on a solo canoe trip from the headwaters of the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico–wow!

Dust in the Road includes nine essays about the Delta’s unique cuisine in its section called “A Bite to Eat and Drink in the Delta.” Why was it important to include Delta food in this collection?

The deep influence of Delta inhabitants such as the Italians, Chinese, Lebanese and restaurants like Lillo’s, Lusco’s and Doe’s, How Joy, The Shady Nook, Abe’s, Josephine’s, and the Rest Haven are indelible in the Delta’s history. And now, newer places such as Dino’s, Vito’s, The Blue Biscuit, and The Onward Store have joined the charge. Stewart Robinson has started a pop-up fine dining experience in unusual places, bringing in award winning chefs from across the country. And Delta Supper Club is the place to be on given dates!

Ecotourism is now alive and well and pushing places like Clarksdale, Cleveland, Indianola and now Greenville to new and expanding plateaus. The Shackup Inn in Clarksdale and Tallahatchie Flats in Greenwood bulge at the seams with international travelers wanting to come to the Delta and experience the Blues.
With venues like the B. B. King Museum, The Grammy, Dockery Farms, Sky Lake, Blues museums and the Hot Tamale Festival, people are coming from far away to experience the Delta and to see first hand what the mystique is all about. The Delta is hot!

Tell me about how you became a storyteller.

If the Delta is anything, it is a place of stories. Those stories you heard as a child, to be embellished as you grow up and learn more about the people within them. And it is stories about the things you do that make an impact on families and friends.

If you don’t retell them, they are lost, and I have been honored to be able to write some of these stories down for future generations to enjoy and use as a reference later on. There was a lot of blood and sweat and tears and joy, triumphs and tragedies that brought this God-forsaken swamp into what it is today, and that does not need to be forgotten.

Signed copies of Dust in the Road are available at Lemuria’s online store.

Author Q & A with Sheree Rose Kelley

By Guest Author

On December 23, 2018

In Southern Cooking

Interview by Jana Hoops. Special to the Clarion-Ledger Sunday print edition (December 23)

Among the many roles that Nashville’s Sheree Rose Kelley holds, her most cherished is home baking–an art she not only believes in doing, but in sharing.

Her debut cookbook, Breads & Spreads is the first in a series she has planned with The Nautilus Publishing Co. in Oxford to “spread” the word that she feels compelled to share her kitchen skills and talents learned from the “endless line of great cooks and bakers” in her own family.

Not only does the book embrace Kelley’s rural roots of growing up in Giles County, Tennessee (encouraged by the bounty of her father’s large summer garden each year), but it enthusiastically reveals her love of the city (sparked by “sampling new restaurants and shopping for exotic ingredients”).

And when she’s not baking rolls, cakes, or biscuits, she’s fulfilling her duties as CEO of Belle Meade Winery, situated on the estate of Belle Meade Plantation in Nashville, where her husband Alton serves as executive director. At the winery she conducts culinary tours, gives cooking lessons and supervises daily wine tastings and special private events, including weddings, on the property.

When Kelley decided she was ready to take on the task of creating a book to share her family recipes, she turned to new acquaintance Roben Mounger for assistance.
“Sheree’s husband Alton introduced us,” Mounger said. “She was familiar with my blog, Ms. Cook’s Table. One day she called to ask for my help with her cookbook idea. She requested that I hold her accountable for the work to be done. For over a year, I tested and refined recipe directions and edited content.”

Mounger’s own interest in food writing had been spurred by another cookbook more than a decade ago.

“Since reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (a non-fiction work that examines one family’s story of learning to eat only locally-grown food for a year) by Barbara Kingsolver in 2007, I have been committed to documenting family stories and tales of seasonal eating, by way of a blog, newspaper column and area magazines,” Mounger said. “Breads & Spreads is the second cookbook project tied to historic Tennessee landmarks which I helped to supervise.”

Mounger said working on Breads & Spreads was more than merely a job.

“For me, working with Sheree was a dream of an assignment,” she said.

The result is a book filled with heartwarming stories, numerous family pictures and a gallery of fantastic food shots of her recipes for breads, biscuits, rolls, cornbread, appetizers and “specialty foods,” not to mention an entire chapter called ‘Spreads and Gravies’!

“Sheree has an adventure-ready spirit when it comes to learning,” Mounger said. “She has taken cooking classes in . . . France, England, Italy, Ireland, and Spain, and she says, ‘So far so good,’ with a twinkle in her eye for the other countries on her short list.”

Below Kelley discusses Breads & Spreads and her own passion for cooking.

Please tell me about the “long line of good cooks” in your family, and how they inspired you to take an interest in cooking at a very early age.

Sheree Rose Kelley

Not everyone has grandparents live into their 90s. I have been blessed to know and learn from the best. Honestly, I didn’t have a choice–it was a way of life. We grew and ate everything from the farm. It came naturally for me. I didn’t know any other way.

Learning to make cornbread and biscuits was so satisfying; those were the staples of every meal. Even as a child I was looking for new recipes to prepare, knowing I could always go back to my firsthand knowledge.

I watched Mama make Hushpuppies a million times for the many “fish suppers,” as Grandmommie would call them. She never had a recipe and when I added this to my book, I had to develop it–and they are mouthwatering!

The satisfaction in knowing how to prepare something and have it look appealing and taste good was exciting!

Tell me about Belle Meade Winery and your cooking classes there.

I first started in the gift shop branding foods for the Belle Meade line. We began to look for additional revenue streams for the site. Alton, my husband and executive director of Belle Meade Plantation, and I started the Belle Meade Winery in November 2009. After we got the winery on its feet I began developing recipes using our wines. The baking classes started shortly afterward.

The class begins with a guided hospitality tour of the mansion and then to the original working kitchen where I teach biscuit baking and ends in the winery for a wine tasting. It was a natural fit to combine the food and wine. Each guest has an opportunity to purchase the tools I use for the class, as well as any new kitchen items on the market.

Before you went to work at Belle Meade, your success with Pampered Chef was phenomenal! Did this come as a surprise to you at the time? Was it hard to give it up?

My love of selling comes naturally. Even as a little girl I would sell cards and stationary in my Mama’s beauty shop. When the opportunity for my two loves–cooking and selling–came together with Pampered Chef, I was in “hog heaven.” I earned my first trip without knowing I achieved it. I received a call from the home office to tell me I was on track and I just kept doing what I was doing and before I knew it, I was on my way to Disney World with the whole family. I had enthusiasm for the product and it shined through to each of my customers.

I really haven’t given it up–I’m selling and teaching in a different format.

Please tell me about the wonderful cover and unique binding of this book.

On a trip to England, I picked up a cookbook that was very appealing from the cover. As I examined the book, I discovered the Swiss binding (which allows the spine of the book to lay flat). As for my cover, that was the hardest decision I had to make. Would it be formal, casual, my picture on the front–or not, whatever, it had to be appealing and certainly speak to the title of the book.

Breads & Spreads is the first in a series of cookbooks you’ve planned in order to share more of your family secrets in a variety of different foods. Tell me about the series, and why you chose to start with a book on baking.

Making biscuits was the basis for the cookbook. My claim to fame is winning First Place in the 4-H Bread Baking Contest in the fourth grade for my homemade biscuits. Each meal begins with bread so why not start a series of cookbooks with the same?

My next book will be called “Summer.” My Daddy said this past summer was his final garden. I asked that he please plant one more, so I could have it photographed from the time he turns it in the early spring to harvest. All my favorite summer recipes will come alive. He has agreed!

Your faith has obviously played an important role in your life. Tell me how this has guided your career decisions.

The scripture verse of Hebrews 13:2 says, “Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.”

Hospitality was a part of me before I even knew what it meant, and it has been a guiding principle in my life.

Signed copies of Breads & Spreads are available at our Lemuria’s online store.

Picking Their Brains: ‘Unthinkable’ by Helen Thomson

By Aimee

On August 2, 2018

In Psychology, Science

“Does my world look like yours?” Helen Thomson asks this in Unthinkable: An Extraordinary Journey Through the World’s Strangest Brains. I really surprised myself when I picked this book up. The two psychology classes I took in high school were interesting, but that was the last time I thought about the brain. But when I looked at Unthinkable when we got them in, the cover just grabbed ahold of my attention. Each chapter focuses on a real person from around the world and the rare brain disorder they have. The chapter that made me buy this book is about a man named Graham who, for three years, believed he was dead. Objectively, he knew he wasn’t. He was able to walk and talk and tell the doctor he was “dead,” but for some reason, his brain wasn’t letting him grasp that he was alive.

A lot of the people featured in this book have a disorder known as synesthesia. Synesthesia is a phenomenon in which the activation of one sense will also trigger a second sense. In the book, Ruben is a man that associates colors with people in an almost aura-like sense. Different colors mean different things to him, for example, he associates red with things he likes. A famous synesthete was Vladimir Nabokov who had grapheme-color synesthesia, where he saw specific letters in specific colors. In his own words, “The long a of the English alphabet….has for me the tint of weathered wood, but a French a evokes polished ebony. I am puzzled by my French on which I see as the brimming tension-surface of alcohol in a small glass… In the brown group, there are the rich rubbery tone of soft g, paler j, and the drab shoelace of h.”

The most interesting chapter to me was about Sharon, who would get completely lost in her own house. Since the age of 5, Sharon’s world would completely flip around to where she couldn’t figure out where she was. She soon realized this was happening whenever she spun around quickly or took a curvy road to her destination. At a party, when she was young, though, she figured out that the trick to right everything around her was to spin around again. Sharon calls this her Wonder Woman impression. For a long time, she was ashamed of this condition. At age 5, her mother told her not to tell anybody about this, or “they’ll say you’re a witch and burn you.” For 25 years, she hid this disorder from everyone, even her husband! Finally, in the 2000s, a scientist by the name of Giuseppe Iaria helped her come to terms with her condition.

This book is full of other interesting people, from Bob who remembers every day of his life, to Matar who truly believes he turns into a tiger at night. Thomson does an excellent job of frankly describing these people. The tone of this book could easily be sterile, but there’s a lot of warmth when she speaks of these people, as if they were her friends. In each chapter, Thomson also mentions similar cases, past and present, which I found interesting. As I read Unthinkable, it felt like a friend was telling me all of this over coffee. Even if you only have a passing interest in psychology, you will love this book!

Picture Books for Peaceful Bedtimes

By Former Lemurians

On July 26, 2018

In Oz: Children's Books

by Phoebe Guinn

Bedtime can be…a struggle. At the end of the day for any parent with young children, the idea of putting your children to sleep is almost bliss. Peace, quiet, and time for yourself. Bedtime books can be lifesavers in these situations, where kids can settle down, snuggle up, and get some much needed sleep. All of which makes finding books that you and your children enjoy even more important than one may think. It can be easy as a parent to look at the cover of a book and pick it up without knowing the impending doom of night after night of reading the same…not-so-good book. With this list, find the perfect bedtime books that won’t put you to sleep, too.

No, David! by David Shannon

With a Caldecott Honor under its belt, No, David! has become a fixture in households around the country for its quick and funky drawing style and light-hearted humor. Meet David, a typical young boy who just can not seem to keep out of trouble. This treasure is based on author David Shannon’s first autobiography that he wrote at just five years old. Delve into the sometimes chaotic world of No, David! with a little bit of humor and get ready for trouble!

Pirates Don’t Change Diapers by Melinda Long

In the sequel to How I Became a Pirate (which is arguably better than the original), David Shannon arrives again on this list for even more fantastic illustrations and with Melinda Long’s funny storytelling, this duo is bound to hit it out of the park. With a title that good, how can you pass it up? Jeremy and the crew are back at it again in the quest of babysitting his baby sister and (somehow) also finding treasure!

Grumpy Monkey by Suzanne Lang

Has your toddler ever been grumpy over absolutely nothing? This book is for you. Jim Panzee, the title monkey, is just having a grumpy day and can’t seem to get out of his sour mood. Follow this adorable character and his equally charming friends in the quest of not being so grumpy.

the Olivia series by Ian Falconer

Ian Falconer’s series of books details the life of Olivia, a young pig with a sassy attitude who might not be so different from most young human girls. Girls can relate to her and parents can laugh a all of her shenanigans and wild stories that seem oh-so-familiar. In the books, Olivia strives to be different and stand out against the crowd, her dreams filled with applause and encores from a packed audience. The Olivia books are charming, entertaining, and a joy to read with young girls.

the How Do Dinosaurs series by Jane Yolen

How Do Dinosaurs is great for young boys and girls who love dinosaurs and parents who want books in a series that have concepts such as love, friends, pets, school, bedtime, etc. With funny and beautiful illustrations, one can’t help but be sucked into this fun, not so imaginary world where dinosaurs rule.

Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

Any explanation needed? Where The Wild Things Are is the PERFECT book for any child. It’s a classic, wonderful for both girls and boys, and a way for parents to reminisce about their own childhood. The story is magical, enjoyable, and has an ending to warm anyone’s heart. The art paired with the spectacular writing allows the reader (or readers) to be fully immersed in the story as if they are walking beside its main character, Max, all along. Let yourself go wild with this spectacular classic, bound to keep moving down throughout the generations.

Ada Twist, Scientist by Andrea Beaty

I’ll end this list with one of my favorite children’s books I have read this summer, focusing on the best book of the series. Ada Twist, Scientist along with Iggy Peck, Architect and Rosie Revere, Engineer are possibly the cutest children books I have ever had the privilege to read, and that is a lot coming from me, a person who probably says the word “cute” more times a day than I would like to admit. There is just something about these books that I cant help but adore–the way the rhyming in the books flows and creates such an amazing voice in the books is almost magical. The illustrations are unique and creative, and seem to have been done with care. I also love the adding of a main character of color in the series with Ada Twist, Scientist. The book seems to be the most “polished” book of the series, the story engages the reader, the colors in the illustrations are vibrant, and every child I have read it to adore it.

* * *

As my sixteenth birthday has been quickly approaching, I have been really thinking about my childhood and what has made me who I am. To this day, some of the best memories I have with my parents are reading books and singing bedtime songs with them before I went to bed when I was younger. It meant so much to me to just have some time with my mom or dad, even if it was just for a few minutes, and I want every child to have that special experience with their parent or parents, too. So, take some time tonight with your kids and let the know how much you love them with a warm blanket, lots of kisses, and a really good book.

Author Q & A with Isabelle Armand

By Guest Author

On July 16, 2018

In Civil Rights, Photography

Interview by Jana Hoops. Special to the Clarion-Ledger Sunday print edition (July 15)

New York City photographer Isabelle Armand said she was “instantly inspired” to tell the stories of the wrongful convictions, incarcerations, and eventual exonerations of two rural Mississippi men when she first read about their cases more than five years ago.

In her new book, Levon and Kennedy: Mississippi Innocence Project (PowerHouse Books), Armand has visually documented the everyday lives of Levon Brooks and Kennedy Brewer over a five-year period after their release from the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman. The black and white images of the men and their families, captured in and around their homes in the small rural Mississippi town of Brooksville, includes quotations that convey their thoughts and feelings of regret and joy about the miscarriage of justice and the eventual outcome of their cases.

The men had been charged in separate murder cases committed 18 months apart in the early 1990s. Brooks was sentenced to life and was imprisoned 18 years; Brewer received a death sentence and served 15 years.

It was through the diligent work of The Innocence Project, along with DNA testing, that Brewere and Brooks were cleared of all charges and freed in 2008.

Armand’s book includes text by Tucker Carrington, director of the George C. Cochran Innocence Project at the University of Mississippi School of Law, who, with Washington Post reporter Radley Balko, co-authored the book The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist, also related to the cases of Brewer and Brooks.

Armand acknowledges the support of artist Olivier Renaud-Clement, the Shoen Foundation, PowerHouse Books, and Meridian Printing for the production of her book.

Her distinctive photography works can be found in private and museum collections, and have been exhibited in the United States. They have also been featured in national and international publications.

Tell me about your background, and how you became interested in photography.

I was born and raised in Paris. My mother was a Vogue editor and worked with amazing photographers such as Helmut Newton and Guy Bourdin. We had many photography books of the masters. I was always around photography and got the best possible education. I was especially drawn to the works of Walker Evans, Dorthea Lange, Brassai, Cartier-Bresson, Roy DeCarava, Edward Curtis, who documented people and places. They were storytellers of life. But at first, I followed in my mother’s steps and worked as a stylist there, and here.

I left France at 20 to come to New York, which I still love some 30 years later.

Do you have family or other connections to Mississippi?

A lifelong inspiration would be my only connection to Mississippi. I grew up fascinated with the U.S.; at first, it was through cinema. The West, New York, and the South seemed mythical places.

In Paris, I was around Blues musicians, and our idols were Robert Johnson, Little Walter, Muddy Waters, and the like. Mississippi captured my imagination, a fundamental American culture was born there, and I find the place incredibly rich and deeply textured.

How did you hear about the cases of Levon Brooks and Kennedy Brewer? When and why did you decide to become involved in them?

I came across an article about the cases’ forensics in 2012. It was a troubling account of a flawed and corrupt process, when reality goes beyond fiction. It triggered many questions; how, why, and where could this happen? I was instantly inspired to tell their story in photographs. I waited for several months, but the story stayed with me. Finally, I contacted Tucker Carrington, and suggested a photographic documentary around Levon’s and Kennedy’s experiences.

When did you begin photographing the images in this book, and how long did it take?

I began to photograph Levon and Kennedy and their families in June 2013. The last images and interviews were done in July 2017. I would go each year to spend time with them, take pictures, and collect interviews. With printing, editing both the images and the interviews, it took five years.

What were your goals (artistic and otherwise) for this project, as far as what you wanted to capture, how you envisioned the large photo collection would be organized, etc.?

The goal was to create a compelling visual essay to raise awareness about wrongful conviction. It’s a reality, which mostly remains abstract until we see it with our own eyes. I felt an intimate photo essay would bring the story of Levon and Kennedy to the forefront. We’d get to know them and their families like our own, and realize that the system can crush anyone.

I envisioned this essay pretty much like it is now. I started with retracing Levon’s and Kennedy’s childhoods, and visiting places which were meaningful to them, then and now. I’d document everyday life; family members, families’ gatherings, birthdays, July 4th, as well as their rural environment. With time, the project took a life of its own.

I love black and white film. It mutes unnecessary noise, and it sets off the essence of the subjects for me. Also, light on film is magic.

I edited as I went along, for each family, until editing for the book, when I had to look at the images in a new light. I eliminated a few photographs and created a new visual narrative. Damien Saatdjian, the graphic designer, gave it great breathing space and rhythm.

Both men and their families seem to have very forgiving spirits about their ordeals. Did that surprise you?

I knew a little about them prior to meeting them, so I wasn’t surprised. They were very angry when it happened. But spending 18 years in prison, or 10 on death row, they had to deal with it in a certain way, or it would destroy them. They had to make some peace with their situation, so they could endure and still be the men they wanted to be. Levon was thrown into a dangerous general population and chose to become a good influence. He saved lives and he was respected. Kennedy, isolated in his cell 24/7 while facing death, chose to educate himself, read, wrote, and prayed. Thinking of his ordeal every day was not an option, like he says in the book, “You’d go crazy.” Yet, he thought about it because he was trying to save himself, which he did by writing to the Innocence Project.

Besides where, how, and why this happened, my question was, “How does one and one’s family cope with wrongful conviction?” Both men and their families stick to a strong philosophy of life.

Levon and Kennedy have large families who supported them during their incarcerations, and you got to know them during the course of this project. What can you tell me about them–their thoughts on their loved ones’ false imprisonment, their attitudes about living in their rural Mississippi communities, their hopes for their own futures and that of their children and grandchildren? (It’s notable that, although many of them mentioned racial prejudice as an everyday event, most prefer to stay because of close family ties and the “peace and quiet” they enjoy.)

I interviewed everyone for the quotes you see in the book, and it depends on the individual. Most feel that the criminal justice system needs major changes. They lived through the most tragic consequences of this system, and their community still does in many ways. Levon and Kennedy’s wrongful incarceration is something they all want to put behind them, even though they have strong opinions about it.

These families have been there for generations, they are attached to their land loved ones, and most don’t want to leave. Some of the younger people are torn between the desire to go places offering more opportunities and diversity, and their love for their family and area. Every parent hopes for a better future for their children, but few think things will change in Mississippi. However, they all go about living their full lives. They ignore and rise above external pressures.

Sadly, Levon passed away this past January, after 10 years of freedom. Did he get to see this book?

Levon was the first person to receive the book right from the printer. He took it all around town, and he was proud of it.

The way the book is bound is wonderful–I love the way the book itself is the book jacket! As an artist, tell me about the decision to create this book like this, in that it makes such a strong impression before it’s even opened!

I don’t like jackets on books and I wanted the cover printed with a discreet lamination. I didn’t want any typo on the cover, either. I felt Levon and Kennedy were so powerful in this photograph that they drew you in. The book wouldn’t be what it is without the work of my lab Laumont on the book files, and the amazing printing of Meridian Printing. And again, Damien Saatdjian’s input was also invaluable to achieve the results we wanted.

Isabelle Armand will appear at the Mississippi Book Festival Aug. 18 as a participant in the “Seeing the Light in Mississippi” photography panel at 4:00 p.m. at the Galloway Fellowship Center.

Author Q & A with T.R. Hummer

By Guest Author

On July 2, 2018

In Poetry

Interview by Jana Hoops. Special to the Clarion-Ledger Sunday print edition (July 1)

For Mississippi native T.R. Hummer, 2018 is turning out to be a year of life and death–and beyond–speaking in literary terms.

The poet, editor and essayist who grew up on a farm near Macon now has 14 books of poetry and essays to his credit–two of which he added just this year and that challenge the reader to consider, on a deeper level, what happens at death and afterward.

Hummer’s 2018 release are Eon (the third volume in his LSU Press trilogy that includes Ephemeron, 2012, and Skandalon 2014); and After the Afterlife (Acre Books), which carries his trilogy on birth, life, and death to the next “logical” step: examining what consciousness comes even after one’s demise.

His honors include a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship in poetry, a National Endowment for the Arts Individual Artist Grant in Poetry, the Richard Wright Award for Artistic Excellence, the Hanes Poetry Prize, and the Donald Justice Award in Poetry.

Hiw work has also been published in The New Yorker, Harper’s, Atlantic Monthly, The Literati Review, Paris Review, and Georgia Review.

Hummer holds undergraduate and master’s degrees from the University of Southern Mississippi; and a doctorate degree from the University of Utah.

He has also enjoyed a long career teaching poetry and creative writing at several colleges and universities throughout the country, most recently at Arizona State University.

Hummer’s lengthy involvement with literary publishing includes serving as editor of Quarterly West magazine at the University of Utah; then poetry editor of Cimarron Review at Oklahoma State University; editor-in-chief of The Kenyon Review, later of the New England Review, and then The Georgia Review.

He now lives in Cold Spring, New York, and is married to the writer Elizabeth Cody Kimmel, about whom he advises: “Look her up; her track record is very impressive.”

Please tell me about your new release Eon–a study of death, the eternal, and what lies beyond. Why this topic, and why now? How does Eon fit into the context of the trilogy that includes Ephemeron and Skandalon.

T.R. (Terry) Hummer

Well, the eternal is always timely, don’t you think? Eon, though it works just as fine as a stand-alone volume, is as you say part of a trilogy of poetry volumes written over eight years or so.

The originating impulse was the birth of my child in 2002–the turn of the millennium, and also the year in which I was 50. The arrival of that child –my second; my first was born in 1977, so there is rather a large gap between my kids, which has interesting effects on such matters as sibling rivalry–had enormous emotional repercussions for me, which I expected going in.

I fell in love with her before she was born, as one will, but as soon as she was in the world, I also felt–to my surprise–that her arrival revealed to me more than anything else ever had the certainty of my own mortality. The title poem of the first volume is about that, and the whole trilogy unfolds from there.

So, it’s a natural part of the progression for the last volume–culminating when I was 60–should take on mortality head-on. Insofar as that is possible.

The cover of the book is a stunning work of imagery by German surreal artist Michael Hutter. How does the scene of this work fit with the poetry in Eon?

All three volumes in the trilogy have cover art by Michael Hutter–partly to provide visual unity among the three, but also because there is something about his work that, to my mind at least, suits the poetry perfectly. His painting is timeless, and yet it continually alludes to, and plays games with, tradition, both in terms of technique and of subject. It’s often very witty also–certainly the cover of Ephemeron has that quality, and of Skandalon also, through in a more muted way. The cover of Eon is the most somber of the three–appropriately, given the subject.

I’ve read that you are a jazz buff, a blues fan, and a saxophonist. With its distinctive rhythm and tempo, do you think your music style has rubbed off onto your writing style?

This a very complicated question. The relationship between music and language is vital, and mysterious. I have spent decades trying to unpack it, and really have no even scratched the surface. However, I can say two things briefly: first, that I found music a long time before I found poetry, but that the one led me to the other; and second, that the example of many musicians whose work I admired and admire taught me how to be an artist.

Growing up in the small town of Macon, in what ways would you say your Mississippi heritage influenced your writing?

Actually, I didn’t grow up in Macon. We were 15 miles outside Macon, and in those days 15 miles was a very long way. I grew up on a farm in a very remote part of the state–far more remote in the 1950s when I was a child than now.

On the one hand, I grew up among animals and plants and all the elemental things one encounters and learns about on a farm–especially on the kind of farm that was then, not a mono-crop agribusiness outlet, but a diverse subsistence farm that was an ecosystem and, in a sense, a society. The farm turned, in the 60s, to a different model and became a different place, but I was already leaving by then. So, I received that kind of education from the people and from the creatures who surrounded me. At the same time, I grew up in Mississippi in the 50s and 60s: the bad old days of Jim Crow and the arrival full-bore of the civil rights movement. It was a quiet rural life, but we also lived in a war zone. Everything was changing, and it had to change. Everything about our old life for good reason was dying and it had to die.

None of that is easy for a young person to digest, but there it was. There is an enormous amount more to say on the subject, too much for this format. I will leave it at this: growing up white in the Jim Crow South had consequences. Growing up black there had worse ones. I have spent decades trying to sort these matters out in my own mind, and being a poet is part of the process.

You have another new book out this year: After the Afterlife, from Acre Books. Why two in one year?

It’s really an accident of publishers’ schedules. Eon was finished several years ago, but took a long time to see print. The work in After the Afterlife is newer, but Acre Books worked faster, so here they both are.

The title After the Afterlife suggests a connection, a continuity, with Eon. Is that the case?

Definitely. The newer work is different, of course, partly because After the Afterlife arrives as sort of liberation from the labor of writing a trilogy. But it all comes from one mind, and I only have two and a half ideas total, so of course it’s connected.

During your years as a professor, if there a defining lesson or message about writing poetry that you have tried to instill in your students?

I retired a couple of years ago, so my relationship with the classroom has changed, but it hasn’t vanished. The one thing I always wanted students to understand about writing–and this is true of any kind of writing, not only the writing of poetry–is that it is always all about consciousness. No matter what the overt subject of style of a poem, its subject is consciousness, and its material is consciousness. A writer creates a score for consciousness, the way a composer creates a score for orchestra or jazz band. The reader’s job is to play the instrument of consciousness in response. Reading and writing obviously are complementary in that way, and both the writer and the readers have to be, dare I say, conscious of that fact.

T.R. Hummer will appear at the Mississippi Book Festival Aug. 18 as a participant in the “Waxing Poetic with the Pros” poetry panel at 9:30 a.m. in the State Capitol Room 201 A.

Author Q & A with Jon Meacham

By Guest Author

On June 5, 2018

In Culture, Politics

Interview by Jana Hoops. Special to the Clarion-Ledger Sunday print edition (June 3) and digital web edition

A Pulitzer Prize-winning presidential historian, biographer and frequent news commentator, Jon Meacham addresses the political and social divide America faces today by examining its “soul”—and he offers a calming reminder that, just as the nation has faced tough times in the past, it can overcome the current rancor.

In his newest title, The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels, Meacham reminds Americans of protectors Abraham assuredly said were on our side—he called them “the better angels of our nature”—and they have surely seen rougher times than we now experience, the author declares.

Meacham examines the people and times that facilitated turning points in American history, and he contends that “hope over fear” will, as it has in the past, guide the country through the present tumult.

Jon Meacham

Among his New York Times bestsellers is American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House, for which Meacham won the Pulitzer.

A former executive editor at Random House, Meacham is a contributing writer for The New York Times Book Review, a contributing editor at Time, and a fellow of the Society of American Historians.

He lives in Nashville with his wife and family and serves as a distinguished professor visiting professor at Vanderbilt University.

As a writer, you are known as a presidential historian. How did that role become yours, as you began to consider and write about so many American presidents?

As John Kennedy remarked, the presidency is the “vital center of action,” so the stories of the office and of the human beings who’ve held it are inherently important and typically interesting. If you live politics—and I do—then you kind of naturally gravitate upward to writing about the presidency.

Your new book takes a deep look at what you call the “soul” of America, and you define that “soul,” of a person or of a country, as being “the existence of an immanent collection of convictions, dispositions and sensitivities that shape the character and inform conduct.” This is an interesting concept that you describe as “ancient and perennial.” Could you explain it more simply, and why it is so important?
I think that’s pretty straightforward: the soul is our essence, whether we’re talking about a nation or a person. Some impulses are good; some are bad. Every moment is thus shaped by whether the better instincts triumph over the worst.

In The Soul of America, you examine what you believe to be the threats of the Trump presidency, and you make the case that America will “overcome” this period, as it has during previous hard times the country’s past. What do you believe are the biggest threats America faces under the Trump administration?

We have a president who eschews the conventions of power and declines to conduct himself with the dignity and the restraint we’ve come to expect. That’s his choice; he won, so he can do as he likes. But issuing threats about the legal system, or bullying people, or insisting that he’s right all the time and that any criticism of him is “fake” has the capacity to erode trust in our already-fragile institutions.

You examine great points in American history when the country “righted” itself and pulled through difficult times, but it always came at a great price. What do you think America needs to make that happen again?

I think we need to listen to each other more and be willing to acknowledge when the other side has a point or gets something right. And we have to remember that progress and prosperity in America tend to come when we favor the free flow of people, of ideas, and of goods. Openness isn’t a weakness; historically speaking, it’s a sign and a cause of economic and cultural strength and health.

I don’t remember a time when we as Americans haven’t heard every day that we are at a point in history in which politics is more divisive than it has ever been—and that trend, if it is one, doesn’t seem to be slowing down. Is it possible for America to become unified again?

Of course, it is. We were more divided in the 1850s and fought a war in the 1860s. The Klan was a national force in the 1920s. Joe McCarthy divided us in the 1950s. And Southerners know how violent and fraught things were after the Brown decision and well into the 1960s.

Mississippi is a state that voted for Trump by a large margin in the 2016 presidential election. What would you say to those voters about their agreement with some of his policies?

There’s plenty to agree with. As with other presidents, though, there’s also plenty to be skeptical about. He’s imperfect; be honest about that and work to encourage him to reach out beyond his base of support. Because I promise you this: history rewards presidents who govern for all, not just for those who vote for him.

Why was the 1916 painting by Childe Hassam Rainy Day, Fifth Avenue chosen for the cover of this book?

Because it’s a beautiful rendering of a patriotic moment and speaks to the hope of a nation that for all its flaws remains what Lincoln called the “last, best hope.”

You write about women’s suffrage, child labor and Jim Crow laws, etc. Most decent people today realize that those laws needed to be changed. One hundred years from now what causes or existing laws do you think may meet the same fate?

It’s less about specific laws today and more about the ladders to the middle class. We’ve got to find a way for more Americans to prosper and pursue happiness without unreasonable levels of fear about the future.

Your next book will be about James and Dolley Madison. Why did you choose this couple, and why are you writing about both?

Because they were a true team serving the ideals of America at a crucial and contentious time.

John Meachem will be at Lemuria on Thursday, June 14, at 12:00 p.m. to sign and read from The Soul of America. He will also be at the Mississippi Book Festival on Saturday, August 18, in conversation with Karl Rove.

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