Page 20 - John Currence News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

It's like putting your head in a bag full of snakes. i meet a bunch of them above in city grocery, john currence's place on the square. there's the brilliant author tom franklin and his wife, the poet beth ann fennelly. grisham writer-in-residence, megan abbott. pendarvis, you know. poet chiyuma elliott. wright thompson is a senior writer for espn. fellow writer on the series "treme", chris offutt. novelist ace atkins. poet derek harriell is originally from milwaukee. crime novelist billy boyle from brooklyn. downstairs, currence's restaurant city grocery cranks out many delicious things. the ...

Better about the world. particularly if accompanied by freshly baked cornbread, biscuits, pulled pork off that whole hog, sweet jerk chicken, and brisket. hell, i feel better already. >> man: the mississippi that i've received is not the mississippi that i've had in my head. i was surprised on how sold i was off the bat. if you wanna write, you come to oxford. >> anthony: do you think that's true? well, apparently yes. >> jack pendarvis: like that line in "barton fink," "you can't throw a rock without hitting a writer." and then he says, "do me a favor, throw it hard." >> john currence: it's e...

Massive, wild, old wood forests and swamps. after the passage of the cheerful sounding native removal act of 1830, the delta became open for settlement by any white people crazy enough, hearty enough, determined enough, or just plain mean and greedy enough to come here. >> julia reed: there's no way to make up for our bad racial past, but you do, you know, the sense of community that keeps people here is evidenced in this place. >> anthony: julia reed is greenville born and raised. the daughter of a political family. a writer, author, and as delta as it gets. how long you been in the city? >> ...

How does the lifelong delta resident differ from the other -- >> julia reed: you had to be a little crazy to wanna come in the first place, 'cause it was like the swamps, buddy. it was under water. i mean, you had to be crazy to come, and you had to have enough money to make it work. so you had some sort of gamblers. i mean, that -- that spirit still infuses the place. it's a little reckless. it's sophisticated 'cause they'd all come from elsewhere. you know, i mean, you know, you go from the delta to the hills. i mean, we're totally snobbish up here, even when we didn't have the right to be. ...

A 175-pound pig will feed many mouths. about 250 people eat here a day. now this is a not-for-profit establishment? >> john currence: yeah. >> anthony: is that right? >> john currence: yeah, it sure is. >> anthony: what kinda socialist, communist -- are you up to, currence? what's going on here? this is the state of mississippi. >> john currence: well, i'm just a feel-good kind of guy. >> anthony: me too. i've been here only a week. my sentences, they're starting to change already. 'cause it's not just a physical, a rhythm to the speech, but the way i'm organizing my thoughts is starting to ch...