The Friends of the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library welcomes author Matthew Guinn to the Sept. 17 Table Talk where he will read from and discuss his Edgar Award-nominated debut novel “The Resurrectionist.” The novel was also nominated for the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Achievement Award in Fiction, as well as the Crook’s Corner Book Prize.
A native of Atlanta, Guinn earned his bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Georgia, his master’s from Ole Miss, and his doctorate in English at the University of South Carolina where he was personal assistant to the late James Dickey. In addition to the Universities of Mississippi and South Carolina, he has taught at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and at Tulane University’s School of Continuing Studies in Madison.
Inspired by a real case, Guinn’s novel touches upon the unsavory history many institutions wish to forget while wrestling with the long legacy of race, power and privilege in the South.
“The Resurrectionist” tells the story of Nemo Johnston, one of many Civil War-era body-snatchers responsible for procuring human corpses for doctors’ anatomy training. More than a century later, a young medical resident on probation for Xanax abuse and assigned to work public relations for his medical school’s dean, finds himself facing a moral dilemma when a campus renovation unearths the bones of dissected African-American slaves — a potential public relations disaster for the school.
The Washington Post called Guinn’s work a “fine gothic novel” and author Andre Dubus III, (author of “Townie” and “House of Sand and Fog”) described it as “a stunning debut … riveting and beautifully written.”
“Matthew’s novel digs up secrets of the past — literally. It’s a mystery that meshes the past and present — and the bones that connect them,” said Friends member Jo Shumake.
The Table Talk session will be held in the second floor meeting room at the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library, 314 Seventh St. N. Doors open at 11:30 a.m. for those wishing to bring their lunch and socialize before the program begins at noon. The Friends will serve iced tea.
For more information, contact the library, 662-329-5300.
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