Greenwood, MS

After spending the night in Oxford, I drive south on Hwy 7 through some very beautiful Mississippi country to Greenwood, home to TurnRow Book Company. 

One of the places I like to stop on the way, if I have the time, is a very old African-American cemetery located way out in the middle of the woods. This is where I found this very intriguing headstone from the 1800's.

Jamie and Kelly Kornegay are the owners of TurnRow , and they have become dear friends. Their warmth and hospitality always makes me feel welcome.

Jamie and Kelly are a great creative team--not only do they have three amazing children (Sophie was at school), but their store is  one of the most beautiful in the country.

In the Tin House blog "Book Clubbing", Skip Horack, author of Eden Hunter--one of my favorite books ever--describes his own visit to their store :

Full disclosure: First and foremost I’m writing about TurnRow Book Company because a few years back I had perhaps my single coolest book-tour experience there—a late-night visit to Robert Johnson’s “probably” grave with flashlight-wielding TurnRow owner Jamie Kornegay. Highly recommended.

The Mississippi Delta has much to offer—friendly people, haunting scenery, authentic blues music, fantastic food—but a great independent bookstore might come as a surprise. Well, the Delta has that too now—or at least since 2006, when Jamie and his wife Kelly opened TurnRow in downtown Greenwood, Mississippi.

TurnRow is located more or less equidistant from Square Books in Oxford and Lemuria Books in Jackson (two deservedly legendary Magnolia State independents that don’t need any cheerleading), and TurnRow has benefited greatly from its close-but-not-too-close proximity to those literary meccas. Among book-touring writers, hitting all three stores has come to be known as the “Mississippi jaunt,” and as a result TurnRow has hosted many authors that any Manhattan bookstore would kill for.

One of the great pleasures of visiting TurnRow, and a perfect example of Mississippi Delta living, is sitting in the store's screened-in porch, next to the cafe, on a warm summer's day, chatting about books and the meaning of life.