Mississippi Author In His Own Words

Eerily prophetic in its depiction of a southern landscape ravaged by extreme weather, Rivers is a masterful tale of survival and redemption in a world where the next devastating storm is never far behind. It grabs the reader from page one, and it is no surprise that the book is in its third printing only two weeks after being released.

In a HottyToddy.com exclusive, Michael explains how he chose the book’s introductory quote:

“When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved.” Acts 27:20

I already had a select few biblical quotes to choose from for the introduction to Rivers. Giant, cataclysmic quotes that herald the power of God or the power of evil that stretches into the darkest regions of the world. There were four of them, sitting together in a document of their own, waiting to be chosen for the final copy, as if finalists in some literary dating game show.

Then I ran across this verse from Acts. I don’t remember how or why I was snooping around in Acts, or the New Testament, or the Bible. But I was, and when I read the above verse, it spoke to all I had hoped to attain with Rivers. It is straightforward and honest. It is vivid and full of imagery. It suggests our futility against the ravages of Mother Nature when she has set her sights on us, and it gives the idea that there are storms and winds and rains so dense and so powerful that they sometimes seem endless.

And what if they were?

In Rivers, you’ll find a Mississippi Gulf Coast you both recognize and don’t recognize. You may have gambled in one of the crumbled casinos, had dinner sitting out on one of the splintered piers, driven Highway 49 on a sunny day with a cooler of beer and beach bag in the back seat. I hope that is the Mississippi Gulf Coast we will always know. But it’s not the one I imagined when I set out to write Rivers, and I hope, like the verse from Acts, that you see the world below the Line in vivid, dreamlike images.

Michael Farris Smith will sign copies of Rivers at Square Books Tuesday September 24th at Square Books at 5 p.m.

Michael Farris Smith is a native Mississippian who has spent time living abroad in France and Switzerland. He has been awarded the Mississippi Arts Commission Literary Arts Fellowship, the Transatlantic Review Award for Fiction, the Alabama Arts Council Fellowship Award for Literature, and the Brick Streets Press Short Story Award. His short fiction has twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and his essays have appeared with The New York Times, University Press of Mississippi, and more. He lives in Columbus, Mississippi, with his wife and two daughters.