Glorious moments from all of Mississippi’s seasons in the Capital, the Delta, the Hill Country, the Piney Woods, and on the Coast
Description
With contributions by Walter Biggins, Patti Carr Black, Lottie Brent Boggan, Donald H. Butts, Bob Carskadon, Rebecca Lauck Cleary, David Creel, Sylvia Nettles Dickson, Pat Flynn, Chris Gilmer, Peggy Gilmer-Piasecki, Carolyn Haines, Ann Tyrone Hebert, C. C. Henley, Alice Jackson, Donald M. Kartiganer, Janice Marie Kraft, Francis X. Kuhn, Bill Luckett, Johnnie Mae Maberry, Debbie Campbell Matthews, Charline R. McCord, Jo McDivitt, Cheri Thornton McHugh, Thomas McIntyre, Margaret McMullan, Willie Morris, Julia Reed, Ronnie Riggs, Sid Salter, David Sheffield, Mary Sue Slagle, Seetha Srinivasan, Brenda Trigg, Judy H. Tucker, Cynthia Walker, Lawrence “Larry” Wells, Jacqueline Freeman Wheelock, Malcolm White, Diane Williams, and Richard Wiman
A Year in Mississippi presents a collection of forty essays, ten per season, celebrating significant events and traditions throughout the state. Writers showcase the background, history, and emotions of these events and traditions with special meaning. Each event shines in the spotlight, observed not only to ascertain its impact, but also to discover why it succeeds, how it contributes to and shapes a unique culture, and how it functions to bind people together.
Well-known contributors and essays of special interest in the collection include Willie Morris’s “The Glory of the Game,” Julia Reed’s “Green Day,” Lawrence “Larry” Wells’s “Always on My Mind—A Blues and Civil Rights Tour of the Mississippi Delta,” Donald M. Kartiganer’s “Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha 1974-2016,” Margaret McMullan’s “Christmas in the Pass,” Sid Salter’s “The Neshoba County Fair: Porches, Politicians, and Pie,” Patti Carr Black’s “Whiskey Christmases,” Carolyn Haines’s “Camp Meeting,” David Sheffield’s “The Blessing of the Fleet” and Seetha Srinivasan’s “Diwali: Hindu Festival of Lights.”
Reviews
"A Year in Mississippi is the perfect gift for an out-of-state friend or newcomer who might ask: ‘What's there to do in Mississippi?’ On that front, it delights, explains, and astounds. But it's also a good reminder to folks who have lived here for years, generations even, that Mississippi has a multifaceted history, Mississippians are a diverse people, and the backgrounds, lives, interests and recreations go wide and deep, as well."
- Jim Ewing, The Clarion-Ledger
"A Year in Mississippi, the fifth book of Mississippi stories from editors Judy H. Tucker and Charline R. McCord, may perhaps be their most delightful account of the Magnolia State yet. If you seek to relive catfish celebrations, high school reunions, and pecan festivals, or explain to visitors just why the Battle for the Golden Egg rages so violently, or what they might expect to find at the Lord’s Acre Harvest Festival, [this book] is the literary revelation you've been waiting for."
- Jim Fraiser, The Sun Herald
"In Mississippi the stories people tell about their experiences are often as entertaining as the events themselves! Accomplished anthologists Charline R. McCord and Judy H. Tucker confirm this fact yet again with their rich and varied collection of stories about some of the state's most beloved traditions, from hunting deer in the Delta to making artistic creations at the Tougaloo Art Colony. A Year in Mississippi is a treasure."
- JoAnne Prichard Morris