Recorded 4/29/15: I had a great talk with writer Jim Grimsley, author of How I Shed My Skin: Unlearning the Lessons of a Racist Childhood.  In the memoir, Grimsley looks back at his own childhood, growing up poor and white in the South, and how he experienced the desegregation of schools in the aftermath of the Brown v. Board of Education decision.  Now decades later, he has written about coming into his own understanding of his own prejudices and looks at how far we have come as a nation in our understanding of the racial and cultural connectedness of different races.  You can listen here, or download the episode from itunes.-Heidi Durrow

Jim Grimsley is the author of four previous novels, among them Winter Birds, a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award; Dream Boy, winner of the GLBTF Book Award for literature; My Drowning, a Lila-Wallace-Reader’s Digest Writer’s Award winner; and Comfort and Joy. He lives in Atlanta and teaches at Emory University.