Hancock Libraries Sponsor “Homegrown” Event at Southern Miss

Big Buzz Blog - January 2025

Thirty talented authors from Mississippi and surrounding areas will participate in live, in-person discussions about their books, what inspires them, and how others can join their exclusive club.
 
- by Dena Temple

This Big Buzz ​is supported by our Partners:

 
Aspiring writers, take heed: The Hancock County Library System (HCLS) will sponsor its third annual “Homegrown: A Writers’ Exchange” event on Saturday, February 1, on The University of Southern Mississippi’s Gulf Park campus in Long Beach. The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required due to limited space. (Follow this link for online registration.) Doors open at 8:30 am with programs starting at 9:00 am and running all day at multiple venues on campus.
 
This year, one highlight of the event will be a conversation with best-selling author Lisa Genova. Genova, author of Still Alice (made into a film starring Julianne Moore), included this event in her national book tour promoting her latest book, More or Less Maddy (Simon & Schuster). The book tells the story of a young woman diagnosed with bipolar disorder. As a Harvard-educated neuroscientist, Genova is intimately familiar with her subject matter.

Lisa Genova and her latest book, More or Less Maddy

 
She will be talking with Mississippi native Katy Simpson-Smith, who recently was awarded the Adult Fiction Book of the Year for her work, The Weeds, a novel that contrasts the lives of two women living in different centuries but joined by a place and a mission — to catalog the weeds of the Colosseum.
 
Homegrown weaves its theme, “storytelling,” through its various sessions, according to Kevin Cole, who handles PR and marketing for the library system. “Writers tell stories much of the time,” noted Cole, “and Mississippians are known to be great storytellers.”

Other sessions include:
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Storyteller Diane Williams

• One of the most widely known and award-winning professional storytellers, Diane Williams (Jackson, MS), will lead a multi-disciplinary panel of authors, a musician, and an artist/photographer in a program that cuts across a broad interest level. Margot Cooper (author of Deep Inside the Blues), Dan Gutstein (author of Poor Gal), Karen Lewis (active in the Perkinson-based Living Tree Oral History Project), and Williams will present a lively discussion that is sure to appeal to a broad range of literary fans.

 

• “The Art of the Cookbook,” moderated by Malcolm White (Hal & Mal’s Restaurant, Jackson) and featuring authors/chefs Mellissa M. Martin, author of the new cookbook, Bayou; Dale Gray, author of the food travelogue South of Somewhere; author Matt Haines (The Big Book of King Cake); and author, chef and travel writer Robert St. John (Mississippi Mornings). Books by the participating authors will be available for sale and signing.

 

• New Orleans-based M.O. (Neal) Walsh, whose book, The Big Door Prize, recently inspired an Apple TV+ limited series, will be talking with Beth Kander, playwright and author of I Made It Out of Clay, published in December and already on the Amazon Best-Sellers list amid rave reviews. Walsh is the director of the creative writing graduate program at the University of New Orleans, while Kander serves as an adjunct faculty at the Mississippi University for Women in Columbus.
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Author Jason Berry

• Acclaimed New Orleans-based author and award-winner Jason Berry will discuss his book and accompanying documentary film, City of a Million Dreams, a historical look at NOLA’s vanishing tradition of second-line funerals, with Rachel Dangermond, director of the 100 Men Hall in Bay St. Louis.

 

• Lauren Rhoades, founder of the online magazine Rooted, will join author Lee Durkee (The Last Taxi Driver) and share stories about their inspiration and motivation.

 

• In “(Re)Visiting Katrina: Year 20,” a panel of authors who wrote personal accounts of their experiences will share their thoughts. Moderator Bernie Cullen, director of the Ground Zero Hurricane Museum in Waveland, will be joined by author Margaret McMullan (Aftermath Lounge), journalist and photographer Ellis Anderson (Under Surge, Under Siege), and the author of Cajun Navy Ground Force, Rob Gaudet.

Author Margaret McMullan

• “(Re)Introducing Walter Anderson” will feature a panel discussion of the noted writer and painter featuring authors John Anderson (The Bicycle Logs of Walter Anderson), Mary Anderson Pickard (Anderson’s Alice), and Kendell Dunkleberg (Barrier Island Suite) moderated by Julian Rankin, director of the Walter Anderson Museum of Art.

• “Children’s Literature” will feature authors Marshall Ramsey (Saving Sam! A Banjo the Dog Story), Bay St. Louis’s best-selling Amazon books author Natalie Guess (The Biggest, The Oldest, The Strongest), and Emily Liner (Stretch Like Scarlet), with moderator and author Andrea Moreau, who will all offer insight and tips on writing for children.

 

• The “Ya Literature” panel will feature discussions of Young Adult literature with Florida author Phillippe Diederich (Diamond Park) and Johnnie Bernhard (Hannah and Ariela) moderated by Tracy Carr.

 

Filmmaker/author Anthony Thaxton

• Eudora, a documentary film about writer Eudora Welty by Mississippi filmmaker and author/artist Anthony Thaxton, will be screened in the afternoon session. The film premiered at the prestigious Mississippi Book Festival in September. An author Q & A session will follow the film screening.
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• A publishers’ forum featuring four regional publishing companies will field questions from audience members interested in learning to navigate the world of publishing and dealing with publishers. Publishers represented include University Press of Mississippi, Nautilus Publishing, Pelican Publishing, and Dogwood Press.

 
Check the Hancock County Library System’s website for complete program information, updates,  and registration. Space is limited, so early registration is recommended.

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