Nuremberg Mississippi

Nuremberg Mississippi

What remarkable journeys have people faced head-on against addiction, injustice and memory? Here, poet and host J Hirtle sits down with author and podcaster Melvin E. Edwards to talk about his novel *Nuremberg Mississippi* and the systems that quietly steer people’s lives. You’ll hear how Edwards, a sixth-generation Texan, moved from sports reporting and political speech writing into fiction that feels uncomfortably close to real life.

Set in 1965, his story takes place after Jim Crow is "legally" over, yet attitudes and structures still hold tight. Edwards explains why he wrote a civil-rights-era courtroom drama with "no violence and no profanity", insisting, "I wanted them to see a system as the bad guy" rather than easy-to-spot villains.

The conversation digs into sundown towns, the unequal impact of the GI Bill on Black veterans, and the way a courthouse and its ever-burning lights become a character symbolising constant surveillance and control. Edwards shares that the Black couple at the heart of the book, Henry and Helen Logan, are modelled on his parents, and that every major character’s surname comes from his family tree to keep him grounded in lived experience.

You’ll also get a peek into his writing life: waking at 3 a.m. to type under the covers on his phone so no idea gets lost, working with lawyer friends to make the legal documents feel real, and wrestling with the weighty choice to call the town "Nuremberg" without equating scales of atrocity.

For anyone curious about how stories can shine a light on systems that feel "benign" yet cause real harm, this chat offers a thoughtful mix of history, craft, and personal reflection. Could the kind of quiet injustice in *Nuremberg Mississippi* happen again, and what might stop it? That’s the uncomfortable question left hanging for you to ponder.