Book Description

“A book I’ve been waiting for most of my life . . . by a writer who is equally at home with Flannery O’Connor and Jacqueline Susann.” —Michael Cunningham, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Mississippi Sissy is the stunning memoir from Kevin Sessums, a celebrity journalist who grew up scaring other children, hiding terrible secrets, pretending to be Arlene Frances and running wild in the South. As he grew up in Forest, Mississippi, befriended by the family maid, Mattie May, he became a young man who turned the word “sissy” on its head, just as his mother taught him. In Jackson, he is befriended by Eudora Welty and journalist Frank Hains, but when Hains is brutally murdered in his antebellum mansion, Kevin’s long road north towards celebrity begins. In his memoir, Kevin Sessums brings to life the pungent American south of the 1960s and the world of the strange little boy who grew there. “Mississippi Sissy is an unforgettable memoir. I think it will strike a strong chord with many, many readers. It’s a far different book than Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, but it cast the same kind of spell over me while I was reading it.” —Mark Childress, author of Georgia Bottoms “What a writer! What honesty! Kevin Sessums seamlessly weaves his heart-breaking, funny, outrageous, can’t-put-it-down story. Read it! Read it! Read it! Then read it again.” —Ellen DeGeneres “Kevin Sessums is a brilliant writer. He is also a courageous one. Mississippi Sissy is beautifully told—hilarious yet harrowing, tragic yet inspiring. This book will deeply touch anyone who has ever felt different, which means every single one of us.” —E. Lynn Harris, New York Times–bestselling author