The Mississippi Book Festival returns this weekend for the 10th edition of the wildly popular event.
In 2023, the festival saw over 14,000 people come to the grounds of the state capitol in Jackson to hear from panelists, talk to writers on Authors Alley, and purchase their newest reads from independent bookstores and their pop-up shops.
Ellen Daniels, executive director of the Mississippi Book Festival, is hopeful the anniversary edition of the event will see more visitors than usual – especially now that it’s being held in September. In previous years, the festival has experienced scorching temperatures during dates in August.
“Last year, we had a great festival. It was bigger than it was in 2022, which was our first year back in person,” Daniels said. “We’ve been considering a fall date for several years, but the heat last August helped us focus on the change.”
Daniels also noted the tremendous growth the festival has seen amid various challenges such as the heat. From its launch in 2015 with best-selling Mississippi author John Grisham and the Sonic Boom of the South ringing in the inaugural event, to overcoming the crux of the COVID-19 pandemic with virtual-only events in 2020 and 2021, to welcoming more book lovers than ever in the years following, the Mississippi Book Festival has become one of the best events of its kind in the entire South.
“This event is massively important to not only our city but our entire state, and to see how it’s grown and expanded through the years has been incredible,” Daniels said. “From hosting literary legends to fostering educational opportunities, the festival would never have been able to leave such a lasting impact without your support, and that is not lost on us.”
This year’s Mississippi Book Festival will feature arguably the best lineup it’s ever had with Jesmyn Ward headlining over 250 panelists. Ward, the first Black woman to not only win the National Book Award but to win it twice, will be discussing her newest novel, Let Us Descend. Joining Ward as the moderator for her panel will be the one and only LeVar Burton of Star Trek and PBS’s Reading Room. One of Burton’s personal missions over his storied 48-year acting career has been to advance education among children.
Thumbing through the impressive list of 40-plus panels, other talented authors highlighting new books include Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (Chain Gang All-Stars), Katya Apekina (Mother Doll), Terri Blackstock (Aftermath), Chris Bohjalian (The Princess of Las Vegas), Eli Cranor (Broiler), Jonathan Eig (King: A Life), Helen Ellis (Kiss Me in the Coral Lounge), Tom Franklin (Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter), Juliet Grames (The Lost Boy of Santa Chionia), Jenny Jackson (Pineapple Street), Sebastian Junger (In My Time of Dying), Rachel Khong (Real Americans), Erik Larson (The Demon of Unrest), Julia Phillips (Bear), Ron Rash (The Caretaker), Maurice Carlos Ruffin (The American Daughters), J. Courtney Sullivan (The Cliffs), Angie Thomas (Nic Blake and the Remarkables), Nicola Yoon (One of Our Kind).
Mississippians also might remember Richard Grant’s Dispatches from Pluto, where the English travel writer emerged himself in the Delta and wrote about his stay. Grant will be at the festival to tout his newest, Dispatches from Arizona, a similar book but based in Tucson.
For poetry fans, 11 famed poets will be in attendance and featured on various panels: A.H. Jerriod Avant (Muscadine), Adam Clay (Circle Back), Beth Ann Fennelly (Heating & Cooling), Melissa Ginsburg (Doll Apollo), Major Jackson (Razzle Dazzle), January Gill O’Neil (Glitter Road), Catherine Pierce (Danger Days), Leona Sevick (The Bamboo Wife), Natash Trethewey (The House of Being), and Hannah V Warren (Slaughterhouse for Ole Wives Tales).
For the kitchen junkies and sports lovers, there’s plenty of talent to hear from as well. Anne Byrn (Baking in the American South) and Robert St. John (Mississippi Mornings) will be manning a culinary panel while X.M. Frascogna, Jr. will present his perspective of coaching youth sports and the lessons learned through The Saints of St. Mary’s. Award-winning journalist Jeff Duncan and former New Orleans Saints player Steve Gleason will team up to discuss their co-authored book, A Life Impossible, which discusses Gleason’s living and learning after his post-football diagnosis of ALS.
Overall, there are too many panels and panelists to highlight going into the event. Fortunately, festival officials have pre-released the schedule flipbook for attendees to plan their day beforehand. If there are two panels at the same time and you can’t decide which one to go to, don’t fret. All sessions will be recorded and archived on the festival’s website after the event.
The 2024 Mississippi Book Festival will take place from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. While most events will be held inside and outside the capitol, some will be held inside neighboring Galloway United Methodist Church. The event is free to the public. There will also be food, live music, activities for children, and writing workshops.
