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 About the Author – Kevin's Blog – Audio Clip – Reviews – Press – Home |
Kevin's Blog |
I apologize to any readers out there I might still have since I haven’t posted in so long. But I’ve been working very hard on my new novel the past couple of months.
I promise to post within the next few days. In the meantime, check out my new gig as the theatre critic for Towleroad.com. I just posted my first three takes on Black Watch and Rock’n'Roll and Fuerzbruta.
I’ll be back on here, though, in a day or two.
November 9th, 2007 at 10:40 am
We’re still out here. Love to hear about what you are up to.
November 10th, 2007 at 11:50 am
We’re all just glad to hear that the novel is coming along and that you’re doing well. We miss you but I’m sure we all understand, and we look forward to reading your new work.
blessings,
eric
November 11th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
Kevin, it has been a couple of days already….time to hear from you again. I just found your book at my local library and am spending most of today reading it. I did put it down to find out more about you and it is wonderful to realize you are just a guy doing your life and sharing it with the rest of us. Your writing is wonderful to read - it truly is. I am back to thew book but wanted to say something about my experience so far. More when I complete MS I am sure. All the best. -J
November 12th, 2007 at 10:52 am
Kevin,
I read your book last month. Being from Arkansas it meant a great deal to me. I just finished a documentary feature called OUT OF THE SOUTH about gay men who grew up in the rural south and relocated to Los Angeles. It has similar themes as your book. Check out the trailer on my web site outofthesouth.com.
Best,
Jason
November 14th, 2007 at 10:53 pm
I just finished reading Mississippi Sissy, and absolutely fell in love with your story. So much, I sent the book to Oprah with hopes that she will share it with everyone as well as allow me the wonderful opportunity to meet you in person (you are certainly a handsome man as well)!
I truly, believe it is imperative that people tell there story (although not everyone can tell it as beautifully as you did in Mississippi Sissy). Sharing our stories allows for change whether political, social, or economic. It allows those around us to see that our “homosexual” life is not just gay culture, a choice, but in a more empowering light that, we are human and deserve equality.
Thank you again, and continue to let your beautiful light shine though the clouds and warm the earth!
Yours truly,
Jason Faulkner
November 17th, 2007 at 3:41 pm
Mr. Sessums,
I made my way down to Mississippi a few months ago to begin law school at Mississippi College. I’ve somewhat adjusted to being in Jackson, but it still isn’t home.
I came across your book yesterday in a book store. Though I don’t need to read for pleasure these days due to finals which are approaching fast, I decided to buy it. I began reading it last night and found myself not being able to put it down, though I have taken a break today so I can study for class.
Your book has so much to offer. I find myself visualizing the various places you mention such as the Jewish cemetery and the Theatre here in Jackson. I also take note of the communities you mention in hopes that I might visit them sometime. At times, I’ll just get out and drive, as I did last week when I made a visit to Canton.
More importantly though, your book is conveying to me to be who I am no matter what others might think, and for that I am grateful to you and your book.
November 17th, 2007 at 9:07 pm
I recently discovered your book and like so many others I was not able to put it down. It was touching, heartfelt, and emotionally evoking. Thank you so much for sharing your story. Look forward to your upcoming novel.
November 25th, 2007 at 5:05 pm
Nice to have you back in any form! Looking forward to the new book.
November 26th, 2007 at 8:47 am
Good morning Kevin,
We have been waiting to hear what you have been up to. And it is now more than 25 days since you promised a day or two before letting us know what is happening. I hope it hasn’t been on account of substantive rewrites of the novel.
Cheers
November 28th, 2007 at 11:42 am
I just had to write. Thank you so much for this book. I’m not quite finished, but 10 minutes ago read the section where you were under that tree by the cotton fields speaking with Matty. I just about lost it during silent reading with my students. In fact I had to stop them, tell them a bit about your story and read aloud that section. “Love ain’t enough for the likes of us. We standin’ on the same ground but we folks from different lands… [love] ain’t never ’nuff in a crooked-letter state like this.” Indeed. The same could be said for this community where I teach. Where sports is God and love is “defined” in terms of gender opposites. Thank God, my kids get me here, and those sissy boys and butch girls in my classes know that love exists even if it’s on the outskits of Smithville or in downtown Kansas City. Thanks, Kevin. You made my day today.
November 28th, 2007 at 10:26 pm
Hi Kevin: i just finished Mississippi Sissy. It was very powerful. Thanks for writing it. I admire your courage.
November 29th, 2007 at 4:58 am
you should have written in a month or two instead of a day or two.
:-)
December 8th, 2007 at 9:23 am
Kevin. What is that “ball” painting in the photo in today’s New York Times? Who is the artist? Story should have been longer.
April 28th, 2008 at 6:41 am
Wow…I just finished reading “Sissy” last night and found it to be extremely powerful, so much so that this morning I have “googled” Sessums and came up with this blog. Just feel I have to respond to the book. Once I started, I felt compelled to progress onward through its pages, despite the painful content of your story. Most of the time I read for entertainment, not enlightenment. I avoid biography whenever I can. Or perhaps it would be more true to say I read to avoid pain, rather than confront it, to lose myself in storybook fiction. Nonetheless, I could not stop, did not wish to stop reading, and I found in it disturbingly accurate echoes of my own “sunbaked southern childhood.” Happily, I was spared the trauma of parents’ deaths, sexual molestation, and discovering a loved mentor murdered, but not the sense of not fitting in, of being different in some sinister way, and the fear of ultimate rejection becuase of it. That always haunted me and I can’t honestly say that I’ve completely shed that today. The backdrop of the southern mentality, gentility, and racism captured so aptly in your book are there for me also. One might say perhaps that you were steeped in it more strongly, perhaps, being a generation older and several hundred miles deeper, but much of it resonates for me. All in all, a powerful experience. It is the kind of book my friend Chuck, the Frank-like mentor of my adolescence, would have adored, and would have immediately recommended to me. He was a huge admirer of Welty, of all things southern, and utilized the “gay coming of age” genre to help me feel less alone. Thanks for your gift
August 6th, 2008 at 11:00 am
i grew up in Jackson, Mississippi in the fifties and sixties and I’ve being reading as much as I can find on this time period. I’ve read several books on this tumultuous period but “Mississippi Sissy” is by far the most interesting. I knew several of the people in this book so it made it even more interesting for me.
Are there more books by Kevin in the works?