Thacker Mountain Radio Celebrates Book Conference Today at 6

The Thacker Mountain Radio Hour celebrates the Oxford Conference for the Book today at 6 p.m. at Off Square Books (129 Courthouse Square).

Admission is free and the public is invited. Guests will include authors Ariel Lawhon (Flight of Dreams), Julia Claiborne Johnson (Be Frank with Me) and musician Brooke Waggoner (Sweven).

As always, hosts for the weekly event are Jim Dees and house band the Yalobushwhackers. The show can be heard locally from 6-7 p.m. on WUMS 92.1 FM or online: MyRebelRadio.com.

Thacker Mountain Radio Hour house band the Yalobushwhackers with drummer Wallace Lester will perform tonight a 6 p.m. at Off Square Books.
Photo by Jeff McVay

Most book conference events, which started Wednesday and continues today and tomorrow, are free and open to the public. A complete schedule is available at: OxfordConferenceForTheBook.com.

Author Ariel Lawhorn will be one of two guest authors to visit the Thacker Mountain Radio Hour tonight at 6 at Off Square Books.
Photo courtesy of Kay Chance Photography/Aerial Lawhorn Facebook page

Lovers of historical fiction will not want to miss Ariel Lawhon, author of the novel, Flight of Dreams (Doubleday) an utterly suspenseful, heart-wrenching novel, that brings the fateful May 1937 voyage of the doomed airship Hindenburg to life. Lawhon evokes the airborne luxury of the ship—the meals, the cocktails, the smoking room and the service. She populates the book with a cast of eclectic passengers. The New York Times said, “The novel beautifully exploits the unique, excruciating kind of suspense in which the poor horrified reader knows from the start exactly what’s going to happen but Lawhon keeps us guessing. Who will bring down the Hindenburg? And how?”

Author Julia Claiborne Johnson will also appear tonight at Thacker Mountain Radio Hour at 6.
Photo courtesy of Julia Claiborne Johnson Facebook page

Julia Claiborne Johnson’s debut novel is Be Frank With Me (William Morrow). It’s the story of M. M. Mimi Banning “a one hit literary wonder” who is holed up in her Bel Air mansion trying to finish her first book in decades. Her publisher sends an assistant to monitor her progress. When Alice Whitley arrives she’s put to work as a companion to Frank, the writer’s eccentric son, who has the wit of Noel Coward, the wardrobe of a 1930s movie star and very little in common with his fellow fourth-graders. The longer she spends with the Bannings, the more Alice becomes obsessed with two questions: Who is Frank’s father? And will Mimi ever finish that book?

Musician Brooke Waggoner will play a set at Thacker Mountain Radio Hour tonight at 6 at Off Square Books.
Photo courtesy of Brooke Waggoner Facebook page

Brooke Waggoner is a singer-songwriter from New Orleans now living in Nashville. She had 17 years of classical training as a pianist before turning to songwriting. She spent 2012 touring with Jack White and is a regular on the NPR radio series, Mountain Stage. She has released four CDs including her latest, Sweven. The Washington Post says, “Waggoner’s voice exists in an ethereal place somewhere between orchestral folk, pared-down electro pop and the modern torch song.”

Emcee Jim Dees hosts the Thacker Mountain Radio Hour each week.
Photo by Jeff McVay

The Thacker Mountain Radio Hour can be heard every Saturday night at 7 on Mississippi Public Broadcasting, radio or online: MPBOnline.org.

More information is available at the show’s website: ThackerMountain.com. Photos of past shows can be found on the show’s Facebook page and podcasts can be heard on the show’s Soundcloud page at SoundCloudThackerMountain.com.

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