The Pat Conroy Literary Center and NeverMore Books will host Susan Cushman, author of the short story collection Friends of the Library, for a book discussion from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 17.

Free and open to the public, the discussion will be followed by a book signing.

Cushman returned to her home state of Mississippi to speak at Friends of the Library groups in 10 small towns in 2017-18, including Oxford, where she had previously studied at the University of Mississippi. Those visits and the people she met inspired the stories in this, her fifth book.<span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span>

Friends of the Library is the story of Adele Covington, who becomes an author in her sixties and goes on a book tour of Mississippi. Chasing her personal demons through the Christ-haunted South of her childhood, Adele befriends an eclectic group of wounded people and decides to tell their stories.<span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span>

“Friends of the Library reminds us of the affecting, empowering ways libraries serve as safe havens for the stories and storytellers in our communities,” said Jonathan Haupt, executive director of the Pat Conroy Literary Center.

Cushman’s previously published books include: Cherry Bomb (a novel), Tangles and Plaques: A Mother and Daughter Face Alzheimer’s (a memoir), and two anthologies, A Second Blooming: Becoming the Women We Are Meant to Be, and Southern Writers on Writing. She lives in Memphis with her husband.