ABOUT THE FEATURED AUTHOR:
From the author’s website
Jeffrey is the award-winning author off four novels — Almost Snow White, winner of the 2013 USA Best Book Awards. Hating Heidi Foster, winner of the 2013 Readers Favorite Book Award for young adult literature. The Emancipation of Evan Walls, winner of the 2020 National Indie Excellence Award for African American fiction, winner of the 2019 Readers Favorite Book Award, winner of the 2019 American Bookfest Best Book Award and a Shelf Unbound 2019 Notable Book. Jeffrey’s latest novel is Mr. Jimmy From Around the Way, winner of the 2024 Next Generation Indie Book Awards for African American Fiction.
He is also an Emmy award-winning television director and a 2016 inductee to the Virginia Communications Hall of Fame. During a 34-year career at NBC News, Jeffrey directed a decade of Meet The Press, The Today Show, NBC Nightly News, and major special events.
He was a contributor for HuffPost and has been published in The Washington Post, The Grio.com and other publications, commenting on issues of race, social justice and writing.
He is also an award-winning documentary scriptwriter for films and interactives that are now on display in the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture. America I AM: The African American Imprint at the National Constitution Center, The Museum at Bethel Woods, at the site of the 1969 Woodstock Music and Arts Fair, and others. These projects have won Cine Golden Eagle Awards, Muse Awards and a Thea Award.
In 2017 and 2018, Jeffrey served as Journalist in Residence and Shapiro Fellow at the School of Media and Public Affairs at The George Washington University.
Recently, Jeffrey earned his university’s alumni achievement award – the VCU Alumni Star – for his professional achievements as a director at NBC, script writer and author. He also served as a member of the advisory board at the Richard T. Robertson School of Media and Culture at Virginia Commonwealth University, his alma mater. He also served as a member of the national board of the non-profit Reading Partners, dedicated to the mission of child literacy.
Born and raised in Smithfield, Virginia, he now lives in Washington, DC.
ABOUT JEFFREY’S LATEST BOOK: Mr. Jimmy From Around the Way
WINNER OF THE 2024 NEXT GENERATION INDIE BOOK AWARD FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN FICTION AND OF THE 2024 NATIONAL INDIE EXCELLENCE AWARD IN THE AFRICAN AMERICAN CATEGORY. FINALIST OF THE 2024 NATIONAL INDIE EXCELLENCE AWARD FOR LITERARY FICTION.
James Henry Ferguson doesn’t belong here.
After a highly publicized fall from grace, James attempts to flee from the chaos in his life. He ends up in a community he had never heard of before, one that has been neglected and ignored by everyone in rural Ham, Mississippi. A place of abject poverty, the neighborhood is commonly referred to as “Around the Way.”
Within a place forgotten by the rest of the world, politics can be a dangerous game. When a troubling discovery is made, the entire neighborhood is rocked to its core and James is forced to confront his own past in order to help the community have a future. He will have to find the strength to fight for the neighbors he once disregarded and avert a heart-breaking disaster.
A self-identified failure is forced to uncover the wisdom of his past in order to recognize that money can’t solve every problem. Full of never-ending twists and turns, no one can prepare themselves for the surprises in store. Mr. Jimmy From Around the Way is a story about failure, self-discovery, empowerment, and the possibility of redemption.
AUTHOR VISITS:
Author visits with Jeffrey Blount are available via Adventures by the Book.