With Starkville’s new reading series, associate professor of English Michael Kardos works to move author visits from academia into the Starkville community. The Redbud Reading Series begins Friday at Nine-twentyNine Coffee Bar on Main Street with Book Mart and Cafe and features debut novelists Matthew Guinn and Michael Piafsky.

By bringing in these two writers, Kardos said he intends to showcase the rich literary talent in our region.

“Here are a couple of excellent novels by two writers who are particularly adept at talking about fiction — what it does and how it works,” Kardos said. “Here’s a chance to meet two writers of debut novels that are getting lots of buzz. That should appeal to anyone who’s a reader and a lover of good fiction, regardless of major or academic course of study.”

The featured novelists, Matthew Guinn and Michael Piafsky, are both Southern writers debuting their first novels.

Matthew Guinn of Jackson, Miss., will read from his novel, “The Resurrectionist.” His story weaves the history of a resurrectionist responsible for procuring human corpses for doctors’ anatomy training with Dr. Jacob Thacker, a medical resident facing an ethical dilemma after his medical school’s campus renovation unearths the bones of dissected African- American slaves. Thacker has to make the choice between obeying the school’s dean’s decision to cover it up or to risk his career to force his school to face its dark past. 

The Starkville Dispatch quotes Andre Dubus III’s praise of Guinn’s novel’s exploration of complicated, nuanced issues. Dubus notes Guinn dares “to step into the long shadow of class and race in this country, a shadow into which Guinn shines a natural-born storyteller’s illuminating light.” Guinn also calls the debut “riveting and beautifully written.”

“The Resurrectionist” was nominated for the Edgar Award for the 2014’s best first mystery novel published in America. 

Piafsky, director of creative writing at Spring Hill College in Mobile, Ala., will read from his novel, “All the Happiness You Deserve.” An everyman searches for truth and meaning in a life fraught with unsettling challenges, joyful milestones and the unconscious awareness of the passage of time. The 78 cards of the Tarot deck frame the narrator’s story as he journeys through the phases of his life from childhood to old age.

Booklist calls Piafsky’s debut novel “a slow, wonderful read that slices a midwestern boy’s life into vignettes. The story is delivered with a holism evocative of a John Irving novel (the father, Garland, even tries to influence the protagonist to wrestle in college), and it is very male … It is beautifully written and deeply rewarding. Piafsky is heading toward becoming a major writer.”

Kardos said he hopes the event will draw a range of members of the Starkville community, inside and outside of Mississippi State University and the English department.

“I thought it would be fun to start up a series at Nine-twentyNine because they have a great vibe,” Kardos said. “And the Book Mart has been very supportive of writers from the region. So it just seemed like a natural fit — a way to bring more authors to town and a way to supplement the literary events going on on campus each semester.”

The first ever installment, hopefully to be followed by many more, of the Redbud Reading Series will be Friday at 4 p.m.