Mississippi Sissy Audiobook By Kevin Sessums cover art

Mississippi Sissy

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Mississippi Sissy

By: Kevin Sessums
Narrated by: Kevin Sessums
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Mississippi Sissy is the stunning memoir from Kevin Sessums, a celebrity journalist who grew up scaring other children, hiding terrible secrets, pretending to be Arlene Frances and running wild in the South.

As he grew up in Forest, Mississippi, befriended by the family maid, Mattie May, he became a young man who turned the word "sissy" on its head, just as his mother taught him. In Jackson, he is befriended by Eudora Welty and journalist Frank Hains, but when Hains is brutally murdered in his antebellum mansion, Kevin's long road north towards celebrity begins. In a memoir that echoes bestsellers like The Liar's Club, Kevin Sessums brings to life the pungent American south of the 1960s and the world of the strange little boy who grew there.

©2007 Kevin Sessums; (P)2006 Audio Renaissance, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishers LLC

Accolades & Awards

Lambda Literary Award
2007
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Critic reviews

<p>“What a writer! What honesty! Kevin Sessums seamlessly weaves his heart-breaking, funny, outrageous, can't-put-it-down story.” —<i>Ellen DeGeneres</i><br><br>“<i>Mississippi Sissy</i> is a book I've been waiting for most of my life, though I didn't fully understand that fact until I read [it]...Kevin Sessums is some sort of cockeyed national treasure.” —<i>Michael Cunningham</i><br><br>“<i>Mississippi Sissy</i> manages to be both hilarious and heartbreaking, often in the same moment. Kevin Sessums not only has a great story to tell, he is a great storyteller.” —<i>Carole Radziwill</i></p>
All stars
Most relevant
I enjoyed Kevin’s story, I too grew up in Mississippi as a young gay kid with similar experiences.

Kevin’s story

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There’s a lot to like. The writing is excellent. The storytelling is superb. And the narration by the author is first rate.

The only negative was that the way he voiced Black women seemed two dimensional to me, compared to everyone else who seemed more like individuals.

Beautifully written

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It takes a tremendous amount of courage to bare open one’s soul the way that Mr. Sessums has done in this unflinchingly candid and riveting memoir. I was unfamiliar with Kevin before the book’s title caught my attention while browsing with my daughters at a local retailer’s GOOB sale in Jackson, MS a month ago. He vividly painted every paragraph with an evocative humanity which leapt off the pages and reminded this reader of the common emotional threads which, when we’re lucky, unite us across all manner of gender, racial, age, sexual orientation, class and religious distinctions. I commend him for mustering the strength to confront head on the metaphorical demons which likely would have befallen a less resolute individual.

The author’s writing is lyrically descriptive and it was an added bonus to share in his emotional journey as narrated in his own voice.

Please thank your therapist for planting in you the idea to share your inspiring story with the rest of us!

In a word, this was POWERFUL.

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Mississippi Sissy is a story of life and love, pain and healing ... a powerful story of humanity

magnificent and powerful ..

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Congratulations to Mr. Sessums. Mississippi Sissy is an event full of wonder, angst and intrigue. You slide into the recesses of his life, discovering the nobility of a mother's love, the vulnerability of youth, and the bravery borne from being an outsider.

Both my parents hail from Mississippi and in their many returns to that state, I've never ventured. I've heard too many tales about colored fountains, separate theaters, picking cotton and running in fear for their lives to want to visit the ghosts now haunting me.
I look forward to his next memoir, I Left it on Mountain.


Nostalgic Glory...Why Mississippi Scares Me

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