Welcome to Bibb Country
Where the Land Remembers Everything
​From Kentucky to Chicago and beyond, rooted in seven generations of family, Bibb Country is a reckoning - a reclaiming of buried histories and living truths. In Bibb Country, O’Neal unearths the beauty, brutality, and resilience woven into the heart of one family and set against the sweep of American history.
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Through the lens of her family story, she exposes the tangled roots of enslavement, resistance, sexual violence, and survival—bringing into sharp, unforgettable focus a vision of who we are and who we choose to become.
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This is land writing redefined.
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This is literature that remembers what America forgets.
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About the Author
Lonnae is a senior writer at ESPN/Andscape, celebrated former columnist for The Washington Post, and the author of I’m Every Woman: Remixed Stories of Marriage, Motherhood and Work. Her voice is intimate, unflinching, and urgently relevant.
Bibb Country is a deeply personal and fiercely reported exploration of several generations of Lonnae's family, descendants of both enslavers and enslaved, set against the sweep of American history. With her signature lyricism and journalistic insight, Lonnae traces her family’s multigenerational roots from Russellville, Kentucky, to Southern Illinois and beyond, confronting legacy and loss, as well as trauma and triumph along the way.
"Bibb Country is a searing meditation on one American family's tangled origins, inseparable from the region where its members labored, struggled, and eventually strived. Its interrogation of the personal, the public, and the political is always vibrant, often intense, and consistently illuminating. Lonnae O'Neal stares history in the face and doesn't blink once."
- Jabari Asim, author of We Can't Breath
Book Tour Schedule
​Tuesday, August 19
7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m
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September 6-7
10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
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Tuesday, September 9
7 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Saturday, September 13
​September 26 - 28
Sunday, November 2
2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
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​​In Conversation with Nikita Stewart
at Cafe con Libros, Brooklyn, NY
https://www.cafeconlibrosbk.com/events
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​40th Annual Printers Row Lit Fest
Chicago, IL
March On Washington Annual Film Festival
Webinar with Dwayne Bray, VP and Head of Story Telling at ESPN/Andscape
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Author Talk & Book Signing
at Arnold's Chapel/Bibbtown
Lewisburg, KY
​9th Annual History Book Festival
Lewes, DE
https://www.historybookfestival.org/
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Author Talk & Book Signing
at Urban Reads, Baltimore, MD
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Author Talk & Book Signing
at 44th & 3rd Bookseller
Atlanta, GA​
Author Talk & Book Signing
at Seminary Co-op Bookstore, located on the
the University of Chicago campus, Chicago, IL
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Watch this page for future tour dates!
In Conversation:
The Voice Behind Bibb Country
From conversations with fellow authors to readings, reflections, and real talk about writing, legacy, and land—this is where the story expands.
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Become a Bibb-liophile
Join our email list and get access to more information on Lonnae's comings, goings, and writings.