Advertisement
Save the date and drop-in to meet Jeremy B. Jones, purchase a copy of his latest book, and have it personally signed!In the 1800s, Appalachian farmer and rogue William Prestwood kept salacious coded diaries, leaving his descendent, Jeremy Jones, to reflect on his complicated legacy. Cipher reanimates Prestwood, warts and all, following the author's ancestor as he courts women and hides runaway slaves, as he fathers children with his wife and with an enslaved woman, as he mines for gold and befriends Daniel Boone's great nephew, and as he rubs shoulders with a young Zebulon Vance and raises sons soon to die on the fields of Gettysburg. With research, Jones fills in the blank spaces of this Everyman's life. Along the way, Jones begins tracking his own life alongside the fascinating arc of this long-ago forefather, forging an intimate relationship with a man whose own account, in Jones's expert hand, begins to take on texture, drama, emotional resonance--even as the author uncovers curious and disturbing details about his ancestor. And thus, about his family. About himself.
Jeremy B. Jones is the author of the memoir Cipher, as well as Bearwallow, which was named the 2014 Appalachian Book of the Year in nonfiction and awarded gold in memoir in the 2015 Independent Publisher Book Awards. His essays appear in numerous literary journals and anthologies, including Oxford American, Appalachian Reckoning, and the Iowa Review. Born and raised in the mountains of North Carolina, Jeremy earned his MFA from the University of Iowa and now serves as a professor of English at Western Carolina University. He lives in Hendersonville, NC.
This drop-in event is FREE and open to the public.
Advertisement
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
36 W. Main Street, Brevard, NC, United States, North Carolina 28712
