Mississippi Book Festival 2024: Jesmyn Ward, LeVar Burton highlight event

The 10th annual Mississippi Book Festival promises an impressive lineup of author speakers and panelists.

In its decade-long history, the festival has brought hundreds of literary and political figures to Jackson with recent lineups including former Vice President Mike Pence and Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayer.

The festival announced the first list of guest panelists in March, and the roster has been growing since.

This year's festival will take place on Sept. 14 in the Mississippi State Capitol Building and the Galloway United Methodist Church. The festival is a free event open to the public.

More summer events: Activities and events to add to your Jackson summer bucket list. See dates and times here

Who's coming?

Here is the current list of authors and their recent books set to speak at the 2024 Mississippi Book Festival, separated by genre.

Art and design:

• Kate Medley, "Thank You Please Come Again: How Gas Stations Feed and Fuel the American South — A Photographic Road Trip"

• Noah Saterstrom, "What Became of Dr. Smith"

• Ben Wynne, "A Hound Dog Tale: Big Mama, Elvis, and the Song That Changed Everything"

Children's books:

• Sarah-SoonLing Blackburn, "Exclusion and the Chinese Story"

• Kate DiCamillo, "Ferris"

• Mary Anna?se Heglar, "The World Is Ours to Cherish: A Letter to a Child"

• Heather C. Morris, "Trunk Goes Thunk! A Woodland Tale of Opposites"

• Helena Ku Rhee, "Sora's Seashells"

• Kim Rogers, "Just Like Grandma"

• Taryn Souders, "The Mystery of Radcliffe Riddle"

• Angie Thomas, "Nic Blake and The Remarkables: The Manifestor Prophecy"

• Allen R. Wells, "Dante Plays His Blues"

• Anne Wynter, "Nell Plants a Tree"

Fiction:

• Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, "Chain Gang All Stars"

• Kaveh Akbar, "Martyr!"

• Allison Alsup, "Foreign Seed"

• Katya Apekina, "Mother Doll"

• Jeff Barry, "Go to Hell Ole Miss"

• Chris Bohjalian, "The Princess of Las Vegas"

• Lee Boudreaux, editor of novels including "Lessons in Chemistry" and "The Most Fun We Ever Had"

• Gabi Burton, "Drown Me with Dreams: Hearts break. Kingdoms shatter."

• Eli Cranor, "Broiler"

• Elizabeth Crook, "The Madstone"

• Leif Enger, "I Cheerfully Refuse"

• Tom Franklin, "Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter"

• Alina Grabowski, "Women and Children First"

• Juliet Grames, "The Lost Boy of Santa Chionia"

• Minrose Gwin, "Beautiful Dreamers"

• Shaun Hamill, "The Dissonance"

• Mary Anna?se Heglar, "Troubled Waters"

• Jenny Jackson, "Pineapple Street"

• Joseph Kanon, "Shanghai"

• Rachel Khong, "Real Americans"

• Claire Lombardo, "Same As It Ever Was"

• Rachel Lyon, "Fruit of the Dead"

• Jenn Lyons, "The Sky on Fire"

• Lee Mandelo, "The Woods All Black"

• Mesha Maren, "Shae"

• Alane Salierno Mason, editor and vice president of W.W. Norton and Company

• Melissa Mogollon, "Oye"

• Julia Phillips, "Bear"

• Jamie Quatro, "Two-Step Devil"

• Ron Rash, "The Caretaker"

• Maurice Carlos Ruffin, "The American Daughters"

• O. O. Sangoyomi, "Masquerade: Her Rise to Fortune, Paid in Blood"

• Ery Shin, "Spring on the Peninsula"

• J. Courtney Sullivan, "The Cliffs"

• Sheila Sundar, "Habitations"

• Joseph Earl Thomas, "God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer"

• Natasha Trethewey, "The House of Being (Why I Write)"

• M.O. Walsh, "The Big Door Prize"

• Jesmyn Ward, "Let Us Descend"

• Randy Wayne White, "One Deadly Eye: A Doc Ford Novel"

• Phillip B. Williams, "OURS"

• Gerry Wilson, "That Pinson Girl"

• Henry Wise, "Holy City"

• Snowden Wright, "The Queen City Detective Agency"

• Steve Yarbrough, "Stay Gone Days"

• Nicola Yoon, "One of Our Kind"

Lifestyle:

• Anne Byrn, "Baking in the American South"

• Margo Cooper, "Deep Inside the Blues: Photographs and Interviews"

• John T. Edge, "The Potlikker Papers: A Food History of the Modern South"

• John Caleb Grenn, literary reviewer

• Cree Myles, "All Ways Black"

• Aimee Nezhukumatathil, "Bite by Bite: Nourishments and Jamborees"

• Robert St. John, "Robert St. John's Mississippi Mornings: Deep South Breakfasts, Brunches, and Musings"

• Anthony Thaxton, "Eudora"

• Traci Thomas, host of the podcast "The Stacks"

• Crystal Wilkinson, "Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts: Stories and Recipes from Five Generations of Black Country Cooks"

• Diane Williams, "A Guide to Mississippi Museums"

• Jerid P. Woods, also known as Akili Nzuri, author of the blog "A Black Man Reading"

Nonfiction:

• Jami Attenberg, "1000 Words"

• KB Brookins, "Pretty: A Memoir"

• Jonathan Corcoran, "No Son of Mine: A Memoir"

• Eric Jay Dolin, "Left for Dead: Shipwreck, Treachery, and Survival at the Edge of the World"

• Todd Doughty, "Little Pieces of Hope: Happy-Making Things in a Difficult World"

• Jeff Duncan, "A Life Impossible: Living with ALS: Finding Peace and Wisdom Within a Fragile Existence"

• W. Ralph Eubanks, "A Place Like Mississippi: A Journey Through a Real and Imagined Literary Landscape"

• Ellen Ann Fentress, "The Steps We Take: A Memoir of Southern Reckoning"

• Dionne Ford, "Go Back and Get it: A Memoir of Race, Inheritance, and Intergenerational Healing"

• X. M. Frascogna Jr., "The Saints of St. Mary's"

• Marion Garrard Barnwell, "All the Things We Didn't Say: Two Memoirs"

• Richard Grant, "A Race to the Bottom of Crazy: Dispatches from Arizona"

• Grace Elizabeth Hale, "In the Pines: A Lynching, A Lie, A Reckoning"

• Paul Hendrickson, "Fighting the Night: Iwo Jima, World War II, and a Flyer's Life."

• J. L. Holloway, "Nothing to Lose: A Story of Poverty, Resilience, and Gratitude"

• Jasmine L. Holmes, "Yonder Come Day: Exploring the Collective Witness of the Formerly Enslaved"

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

• Erik Larson, "The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War"

• Beverly Lowry, "Deer Creek Drive: A Reckoning of Memory and Murder in the Mississippi Delta"

• Priyanka Mattoo, "Bird Milk and Mosquito Bones"

• Tracie McMillan, "The White Bonus: Five Families and the Cash Value of Racism"

• Margaret McMullan, "Where the Angels Lived: One Family's Story of Exile, Loss and Return"

• Di Rushing, "The Delta in the Rearview Mirror: The Life and Death of Mississippi's First Winery"

• Wesley Shoop, "Mississippi's Natural Heritage of Mississippi: Photographs of Flora and Fauna"

• Hampton Sides, "The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook"

• Buz Teacher, Running Press Book Publishers

• Boyce Upholt, "The Great River: The Making and Unmaking of the Mississippi"

• Kidada E. Williams, "I Saw Death Coming: A History of Terror and Survival in the War Against Reconstruction"

Poetry:

• A. H. Jerriod Avant, "Muscadine"

• Adam Clay, "Circle Back"

• Beth Ann Fennelly, "Heating and Cooling: 52 Micro-Memoirs"

• Major Jackson, "Razzle Dazzle: New and Selected Poems 2002-2022"

• January Gill O'Neal, "Glitter Road"

• Catherine Pierce, "Danger Days"

• Leona Sevick, "The Bamboo Wife"

• Hannah V Warren, "Slaughterhouse for Old Wives' Tales"

A full list of descriptions of the authors and books above is available on the Mississippi Book Festival website.

What are the panels?

The festival has yet to release details on the panels happening Sept. 14. However, moderators have been announced. The latest addition is LeVar Burton, best known for the shows "Reading Rainbow" and "Star Trek: Next Generation" who will discuss with Mississippi author Ward, a two-time winner of the National Book Award.

Here are all the moderators the festival has announced:

• Levar Burton

• C. Leigh McInnis

• Scott Naugle

• Nina Parikh

• Lauren Rhoades

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This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Mississippi Book Festival 2024 lineup includes LeVar Burton, Jesmyn Ward