John T. Edge

In this episode of Hear Tell, Diana Keough talks with author and University of Georgia MFA Distinguished Professor of Practice John T. Edge about his new memoir, House of Smoke.

Known for helping shape the national conversation around Southern food and culture, Edge turns inward in this deeply personal book, examining the complicated inheritance of family, race, violence, memory, and Southern identity. 

Edge explains how he turned his house, hometown — and the South itself — into characters in his book: living, complicated presences that shape identity, memory, and the stories people tell themselves about who they are. He also reflects on reckoning with the stories we inherit, and the complicated work of loving a place enough to tell the truth about it.

House of Smoke is available wherever books are sold. 

For more information about John T. Edge and his work, visit his website at johntedge.com.