Meet Jeffrey Stayton

Jeffrey Stayton grew up throughout Texas and lived in Mississippi before landing in Tennessee where
he’s lived with his wife in Memphis for the past four years. The southern author releases his first
literary noir novel in February 2015, the 150th anniversary year of the Civil War’s end.

This Side of the River was inspired by his question of what would have happened if the war-widows of Georgia took up
arms in the aftermath of the Civil War?

He earned his Ph.D. in English from the University of Mississippi and specializes in 20th Century
American literature.

He writes poetry, has written book reviews for the Missouri Review and has published stories in
StorySouth, Lascaux and Burningword Literary Journal. His original story “Pepper” won the
Bondurant Award for Fiction, and his story “Chisanbop” appeared in the Best of Carve Magazine.

He is a scholar and teacher of Modernist, Southern and African-American literature, often teaching
women’s literature courses as well. His passion for Latin American literature brought Stayton and his
wife on a hike across northern Spain on the Camino de Santiago where he brushed up on his Spanish.

When not writing and teaching, he’s in his studio working on oil paintings.

Having at one point performed standup comedy, Stayton embarks on a unique book tour in Winter
2015 gearing up to be as entertaining as the pages within his literary fiction.

On April 25th from noon to 3PM From My Shelf Books & Gifts will be hosting a duel author event with William P. Robertson and Jeffrey Stayton. William P. Robertson is the author of the Bucktail series and Jeffrey Stayton is the author of the recently published This Side of the River.

This Side of the River tells the story of a group of young, angry Confederate widows who band together at the end of the Civil War, take up arms, and march north to Ohio to burn down the home of General William Tecumsah Sherman.

It draws from the rich tradition of William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying and Charles Baxter's The Feast of Love as it interweaves themes of gender, revenge, and redemption. It's a masterfully-written debut from a bold new literary voice.