Matt Kessler -- Author Event

Pre-order THE WIREGRASSHEREWe are excited to welcome Alabama author Matt Kessler to Page & Palette!On WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14th at 6PM, the acclaimed reporter and former Writer-in-Residence will sign and discuss his riveting new book, THE WIREGRASS: A Tale of Murder and Retribution in the Deep South. He will be discussing the book with Cori Yonge, a local journalist.In this compelling, eye-opening account, a reporter's dogged quest to solve the murder of two teens uncovers a forgotten corner of the Deep South and the chilling web of police corruption, violence, and miscarried justice beneath its surface."Calling to mind the works of Robert Kolker and Patrick Radden Keefe, Kessler brings to vivid life a tiny corner of southeast Alabama in a captivating, richly reported, and deeply humane story of found families, crooked cops, ferocious loyalties, and the terrifying velocity of justice slipping away.” —Megan Abbott,New York Timesbestselling author ofElABOUT THE AUTHORMatt Kessleris a writer from Alabama. He has reported justice, race, and equity stories in Mississippi forThe Guardian, and environmental stories forThe Atlantic. His radio work has been broadcast on Mississippi Public Broadcasting and Illinois Public Media. A fellow in the University of Southern California’s PhD in Creative Writing and Literature Program, he lives with his family in Birmingham. This is his first book.ABOUT THE BOOKIn 1999, in the rural Alabama town of Ozark, the bodies of two white teenage girls, J.B. Beasley and Tracie Hawlett, were found shot in the trunk of Beasley’s car. The girls were out past curfew and celebrating Beasley’s birthday—but from there the story grew tangled, then went dark.As months, then years, passed without answers, an eccentric cast of townspeople took it upon themselves to chase down leads. In this hardscrabble, farming region at the southern tip of the Bible Belt—a place cut off from freeways and wary of outsiders—everyone knew you couldn’t trust the cops. Their i