Award-winning author Jeffrey Blount will be in Chattanooga on Wednesday to discuss his latest novel, “The Emancipation of Evan Walls,” and the issues of racism and social injustice explored in the book.
Blount’s visit is presented by the Southern Lit Alliance as part of its South Bound Lecture Series, in partnership with the Bessie Smith Cultural Center and with sponsorship by the Benwood Foundation.
Blount has written two previous novels, “Hating Heidi Foster” and “Almost Snow White.” His latest release follows the title character, Evan Walls, as he reflects on the civil-rights struggle of his childhood in the South.
The novel opens as Evan and his wife, Izzy, welcome their first child. The birth causes Evan to confront his past, a painful history he has kept hidden even from his wife, as he searches for a way to protect his child from the same kind of suffering.
As a 10-year-old living in Canaan, Virginia, in 1968, Evan develops a dangerous dream for a better life outside of Canaan that threatens to turn his family and his peers against him. Caught between the hatred of the white community, who despise him for his success, and the resentment of his own community, who question whether he is black enough, Evan is left to grapple with his own isolation.