Join us for an afternoon book talk and signing with John T. Edge, host of the SEC Network's TrueSouth, for his new book, "House of Smoke". John T. will be in conversation with local Columbia resident and CEO and founder of Cyberwoven, Ben Rex.
The author of The Potlikker Papers: A Food History of the Modern South tells his own story this time. Of growing up in a house wrecked by violence and a South haunted by racism. And of how his search for home led him to find escape and belonging through food. Until he realizes that gathering at table is just one small step toward reckoning.
In this unflinching and moving memoir, John T. Edge takes us on a quest for home in a South that has both held him close and pushed him away, as he tries and fails and tries again to rewrite the stories he inherited. Born in a house where a Confederate general took his first breath and the Lost Cause narrative was gospel, troubled by the violence he witnessed as a boy, Edge ran from his past, searching for a newer and better South. Beginning in Georgia and ending in Mississippi, his search spans the Deep South and charts a very American story of the truth telling and soul searching it takes to love your people and your place.
John T. Edge writes and hosts the Emmy Award-winning television show TrueSouth on the SEC Network, ESPN, Disney, and Hulu. Edge also writes a restaurant column for Garden & Gun. His 2017 book The Potlikker Papers: A Food History of the Modern South was named one of the best books of the year by NPR and Publishers Weekly. Edge serves the University of Mississippi as a teacher, writer-in-residence, and director of the Mississippi Lab. And he serves the University of Georgia as a mentor in their low-residency MFA program in narrative nonfiction. He lives in Oxford, Mississippi, with his wife, the artist Blair Hobbs.
Ben Rex is CEO and founder of Cyberwoven. A 2003 graduate of the University of South Carolina Honors College, Ben is committed to social progress and economic prosperity. To this end, he serves on the boards of the South Carolina Technical College System Foundation, the Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia College, the United Way of the Midlands, and the South Carolina Honors College. Ben, his wife Sidney, and children Fritz and Alice reside in Columbia, SC. Ben is a Fellow of the 12th class of the Liberty Fellowship and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.
Author Photo by Erin Austen Abbott
Book Jacket Painting by Noah Saterstrom
https://allgoodbooks.com/events/3253920250928
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![Book Talk + Signing with John T. Edge: "House of Smoke", 28 September | Event in Columbia | AllEvents](https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events8/banners/94a4975ce85e8f10d7ea7039fd9225d32e396600879f426c0ba73ef66bba886b-rimg-w1200-h628-dc1a2e4a-gmir?v=1756384021 "Book Talk + Signing with John T. Edge: "House of Smoke", 734 Harden St., Columbia, SC, United States, South Carolina 29205, 28 September 2025 | AllEvents")
