Renea Winchester: Author Reading & Signing

Join us for an evening with Renea Winchester, who will be reading from and signing copies of her new novel, The Mountains Remember.

RSVP

About the Book

Sadie Bird lives in Shaconage, North Carolina, with Lazarus, a mixed-breed dog she rescued from the forest. Sadie supports herself by harvesting medicinal plants which she uses in her tonics and salves. Having recently buried her husband and children, Sadie is more worried about surviving the winter than the federal government's plan to create the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. When Bowman Marks, a government agent tasked with acquiring thousands of acres of land, arrives at Sadie's place, their initial meeting does not go well. Bowman secretly vows to acquire her land by any means necessary and soon presents an unacceptable offer to purchase. In 1929, a woman without a husband is a woman without a voice. Forced to swallow her pride, Sadie asks for help from church members who had cast her out. She soon realizes that to help herself and her neighbors, she must take an active role in a lawsuit against the government filed by the timber baron who employed Sadie's husband.

About the Author

Renea Winchester is an internationally-released, award-winning author whose works include The Mountains Remember (Mercer University Press September, 2026); Outbound Train (Firefly Southern Fiction) which was released in France; De l’autre cote’ des rails; (Editions Le Nouveau Pont) with a companion cookbook, Recettes et autres histories. Farming, Friends & Fried Bologna Sandwiches (Mercer University Press); In the Garden With Billy (Little Creek Press). Her work has appeared in multiple anthologies including Troublesome Rising. Renea is a regular contributor to Smoky Mountain Living Magazine and a former newspaper columnist and winner of the IAPA Excellence in Journalism. She is the recipient of the Wilma Dykeman Award for excellence in Appalachian Writing and the Lucy Bramlett Patterson Award She Elevates the World.

Renea Winchester is a daughter of Appalachia. She owns, Butterfly Cove Botanicals where she grows seeds for the women-owned company, Sow True Seed. She also grows corn beads, the sacred plant of the Cherokee People. She is passionate about literacy and fiercely defends libraries.