Black History Celebration Presents Award-Winning Novelist De’Shawn Charles Winslow

St. Louis County Library’s Black History Celebration presents De’Shawn Charles Winslow, winner of the Center for Fiction – First Novel Prize. Winslow will discuss his new novel “Decent People” in conversation with Saint Louis University creative writing professor and award-winning fiction writer Ron A. Austin.   

The event will take place on Wednesday, February 1, at 7:00 p.m. at the Natural Bridge Branch, 7806 Natural Bridge Rd., St. Louis, MO 63121.

The event is presented in partnership with December Magazine, a St. Louis-based literary journal dedicated to publishing exceptional, thought-provoking literature and championing the work of unheralded writers and artists.

Books will be available for purchase at the event from Left Bank Books.

Award-winning novelist De'Shawn Charles Winslow presents a sweeping and unforgettable novel of a Black community reeling from a triple homicide, and the secrets the killings reveal.

In the still-segregated town of West Mills, North Carolina, in 1976, Marian, Marva, and Lazarus Harmon-three enigmatic siblings-are found shot to death in their home. The people of West Mills- on both sides of the canal that serves as the town's color line-are in a frenzy of finger-pointing, gossip, and wonder. The crime is the first reported murder in the area in decades, but the white authorities don't seem to have any interest in solving the case.

Fortunately, one person is determined to do more than talk. Miss Josephine Wright has just moved back to West Mills from New York City to retire and marry a childhood sweetheart, Olympus “Lymp” Seymore. When she discovers that the murder victims are Lymp's half-siblings, and that Lymp is one of West Mills's leading suspects, she sets out to prove his innocence. But as Jo investigates those who might know the most about the Harmons' deaths, she starts to discover more secrets than she'd ever imagined, and a host of cover-ups-ranging from medical misuse to illicit affairs-that could upend the reputations of many.

“Decent People” is a powerful new novel about shame, race, money, and the reckoning required to heal a fractured community.

De’Shawn Charles Winslow is the author of “In West Mills,” a Center for Fiction First Novel Prize winner, an American Book Award recipient, and a Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction winner, and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book, Lambda Literary, and Publishing Triangle awards. He was born and raised in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, and graduated from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

Program sites are accessible. With at least two weeks' notice, accommodations will be made for persons with disabilities. Call 314-994-3300 or contact us.