On the eve of the 50th anniversary of To Kill a Mockingbird comes The Queen of Palmyra(Harper, $14.99), a debut novel from Minrose Gwin about a young girl in Civil Rights-era Mississippi and the horrosrs she witnesses one summer.  Gwin will discuss and sign her new novel, which has been called "The most powerful and also the most lyrical novel about race, racism, and denial in the American South since To Kill a Mockingbird" (Lee Smith, author of On Agate Hill).Like Kathryn Stockett's breakout novel The Help, The Queen of Palmyra is set in 1960s Mississippi and deals with a segregated society in which black women are paid poorly to raise white people's children - this book will appeal to fans of Stockett and book clubs alike.Gwin teaches contemporary fiction at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and creative writing workshops at the University of New Mexico Taos Writers Conference.  Her previous memoir, Wishing for Snow, a memoir that traces her mother's unraveling from a young parent to an emotionally unstable, even dangerous, older woman."Divert your reader and then "clobber" them, advised Flannery O'Connor.  In this bold and brilliant book, Minrose Gwin diverts us with the affecting voice of a child and then clobbers us with the ugly truths of our collective past.  I can almost hear O'Connor cheering."--Sharon Oard Warner, author of Deep in the Heart.