True Lit: Author Talk with Sidney Thompson

Join author Sidney Thompson to celebrate the publication of the latest installment in the historical fiction Bass Reeves Trilogy, “The Forsaken and the Dead”!

Books 1 & 2 of the Bass Reeves Trilogy have been adapted for the Paramount miniseries “Bass Reeves”!

All heroes have fatal flaws and a moment of defining hubris, but few rise from the ashes to achieve greater heights. In 1884 Deputy U.S. Marshal Bass Reeves was arrested for murder and placed among his own prisoners in Hell on the Border, the infamous federal jail in Fort Smith, Arkansas. It was the single greatest setback of his illustrious career, but it wouldn’t be his last mistake or trial by fire.

In “The Forsaken and the Dead” we meet Reeves again. In the 1890s, past his prime, Reeves proceeds through the valleys and shadows of Indian and Oklahoma Territories. Despite his caution and innovations as a lawman and detective, his nation no longer seems a product of his own making—so much like his children and his marriage to Jennie. While a modern world implodes around him and demons from his past continue to haunt his present, he remains resolute in his faith that he can be a steady rider on a pale horse.

Sidney Thompson teaches creative writing and African American literature at Texas Christian University. He is the author of the award-winning “Follow the Angels, Follow the Doves: The Bass Reeves Trilogy, Book One” (Bison Books, 2020) and “Hell on the Border: The Bass Reeves Trilogy, Book Two” (Bison Books, 2021), adapted for the Paramount miniseries Bass Reeves, directed by Taylor Sheridan and starring David Oyelowo. Thompson holds a Ph.D. in American literature/African American narratives from the University of North Texas and an M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Arkansas.

The True Lit Festival is in collaboration with the Fayetteville Public Schools, Fayetteville Public Education Foundation, Walton Arts Center, University of Arkansas Program in Creative Writing and Translation and Altrusa International of Fayetteville, Arkansas.