JOHN T. EDGE WITH ACE ATKINS: HOUSE OF SMOKE

Name: JOHN T. EDGE WITH ACE ATKINS: HOUSE OF SMOKE
Start: 2025-10-22T18:00:00-05:00
Location: 387 Perkins Ext, Memphis, TN, United States, Tennessee 38117

Schedule

Wed, 22 Oct, 2025 at 06:00 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

387 Perkins Ext, Memphis, TN, United States, Tennessee 38117 | Memphis, TN

Join us as we welcome JOHN T. EDGE in conversation with ACE ATKINS on WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22 at 6:00 PM to celebrate the release of his new book HOUSE OF SMOKE

ABOUT THE BOOK:
The author of The Potlikker Papers: A Food History of the Modern South tells his own story this time. Of growing up in a house wrecked by violence and a South haunted by racism. And of how his search for home led him to find escape and belonging through food. Until he realizes that gathering at the table is just one small step toward reckoning.
"A story for all Americans on a path to self-awareness, honesty, and love."--Wright Thompson, New York Times bestselling author of Pappyland and The Barn
In this unflinching and moving memoir, John T. Edge takes us on a quest for home in a South that has both held him close and pushed him away, as he tries and fails and tries again to rewrite the stories he inherited. Born in a house where a Confederate general took his first breath and the Lost Cause narrative was gospel, troubled by the violence he witnessed as a boy, Edge ran from his past, searching for a newer and better South. As founding director of the Southern Foodways Alliance and a contributor to newspapers and magazines, he told stories that showcased those possibilities.
In the process, Edge became one of the most visible and powerful voices in American food...until he found himself denounced by the audience he once guided, faced down the limits of his work, and returned to his origins to find himself once again. Beginning in Georgia and concluding in Mississippi, his search spans the Deep South and charts a very American story of the truth telling and soul searching it takes to love your people and your place.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
John T. Edge writes and hosts the Emmy Award-winning television show TrueSouth on the SEC Network, ESPN, Disney, and Hulu. Edge also writes a restaurant column for Garden & Gun. His 2017 book The Potlikker Papers: A Food History of the Modern South was named one of the best books of the year by NPR and Publishers Weekly. Edge serves the University of Mississippi as a teacher, writer-in-residence, and director of the Mississippi Lab. And he serves the University of Georgia as a mentor in their low-residency MFA program in narrative nonfiction. He lives in Oxford, Mississippi, with his wife, the artist Blair Hobbs.
ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER:
Ace Atkins is an award-winning, New York Times bestselling author who started his writing career as a crime beat reporter in Florida. Don’t Let the Devil Ride is his thirtieth novel. His previous novels include eleven books in the Quinn Colson series and multiple true-crime novels based on infamous crooks and killers. In 2010, he was chosen by Robert B. Parker’s family to continue the iconic Spenser series, adding ten novels to the franchise. He lives in Oxford, Mississippi with his family.