The Dry Grass of August

On a scorching day in August 1954, thirteen-year-old Jubie Watts leaves Charlotte, North Carolina, with her family for a Florida vacation. Crammed into the Packard along with Jubie are her three siblings, her mother, and the family’s black maid, Mary Luther. For as long as Jubie can remember, Mary has been there—cooking, cleaning, compensating for her father’s rages and her mother’s benign neglect, and loving Jubie unconditionally.

Bright and curious, Jubie takes note of the anti-integration signs they pass, and of the racial tension that builds as they journey further south. But she could never have predicted the shocking turn their trip will take. Now, in the wake of tragedy, Jubie must confront her parents’ failings and limitations, decide where her own convictions lie, and make the tumultuous leap to independence . . .

Infused with the intensity of a changing time, here is a story of hope, heartbreak, and the love and courage that can transform us—from child to adult, from wounded to indomitable.

Anna Jean "A. J." Mayhew’s first novel, The Dry Grass of August won the Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction, was a finalist for the book award from the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance, and has been translated into seven languages. She was a writer in residence for a month at Moulin à Nef Studio Center in Auvillar, France.
A. J.’s second novel, Tomorrow's Bread, is about the destruction of inner city neighborhoods in urban renewal programs that swept across the country, beginning in the 1950s and continuing today. As a native Charlottean, A. J. witnessed the demolition of the Brooklyn community in Second Ward, and her feelings about that travesty prompted the writing of Tomorrow's Bread. The novel was selected for the TRIO program, a traveling exhibit of art, music, and literature that celebrates the inspirational power of great storytelling. Learn more about her here.