Bestselling nonfiction author to be featured at Authors
Richard Grant’s life has taken an unusual path. He was born in Malaysia to British parents, lived in Kuwait as a boy, then London from ages 7 to 23. Later, based in Tucson, Ariz., he drifted around America, traveled all over the world, moved to New York City and “decided on a whim to buy an old farmhouse in the Mississippi Delta”—which led to writing the bestselling nonfiction “Dispatches From Pluto.”
And in a roundabout way is leading him to Shreveport next month as the 30th author to speak at Authors in April, an annual fundraiser for LSUS’s Pioneer Heritage Center. He will speak about his latest book, “The Deepest South of All: True Stories from Natchez, Mississippi,” a sometimes funny, sometime chilling, full of contradictions and always engaging tale that sprang from an invitation to speak in Natchez.
“Within a few hours of being there, I found out that Natchez had more antebellum homes than anywhere else in the South; that it had once had more millionaires than anywhere else in the country, except possibly New York City; that it housed the second largest slave market in the South, yet it voted against secession and was mostly Unionist during the Civil War. Now it had an openly gay black mayor, feuding garden clubs that dressed their children in hoopskirts and Confederate uniforms for theatrical productions and was essentially a matriarchy,” Grant said.
By the end of a black-tie garden club ball in an antebellum home that night, he knew he had to write a book about it.
“The Deepest South of All” has a distinctive voice, which he said “is the way I look at the world. I’m drawn to places that I don’t understand easily. The way I try to make sense of them is to immerse myself as deeply as possible and describe what that process is like. I also read everything I can find about the places I write about. The whole process is driven by curiosity. I loathe to pass judgment on places or people because that is the point where learning and understanding stops.”
Grant lived in Mississippi for nine years and now lives in Tucson, where his wife is from. “I still feel very close to Mississippi and I’m planning to write another book about it. I think it’s one of the most interesting and misunderstood places in the country. The same goes for the Deep South in general. I miss the conviviality and bonhomie, the generosity, the humor, the storytelling, the music and food and free-flowing whiskey,” he said.
However, he also addresses the tragic side of the region weaving race issues into both Mississippi books. “It was inescapable and far more complicated than I understood before moving there,” he said. “Spending time in Natchez forced me to confront the legacy of racebased slavery, which I had always found too grim a topic to read about extensively.”
His other non-fiction books are about other places that fascinate him—the American Southwest. Northern Mexico. East and Central Africa. He is also a regular writer for Smithsonian magazine. For more, see www.RichardGrant.us. Authors in April at-a-glance
The noon luncheon is April 27 at Sam’s Town Hotel and Casino on Clyde Fant Parkway in Shreveport. Doors will open at 11 a.m. with a hospitality time and cash bar. Grant will be available to sign books both before and after lunch. LSUS’s Barnes and Noble College bookstore will sell copies of “The Deepest South” at the event.
Tickets are $50 per person and available by contacting Marty Young, director of Pioneer Heritage Center, at his office, 318-797-5339, or email Marty.Young@lsus.edu. “It’s a great community event, bringing in quality writers,” Young said. (It often sells out, so don’t procrastinate.) Authors in April benefits education programs and restoration and maintenance of buildings at the center, which serves as a history laboratory for students and teachers and for community groups and tourists.
Columnist Judy Christie and NYT bestselling author Lisa Wingate co-authored “Before and After: The Incredible Real-Life Stories of Orphans Who Survived the Tennessee Children’s Home
Society,” the nonfiction sequel to Wingate’s bestselling novel “Before We Were Yours.” For more about Christie, see www.judychristie.com or follow her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/JudyChristieAuthor.