Annie Moye tells the love story behind a colorful artist environment in Mississippi and reports on efforts to preserve it following the artist’s death.

“If you’re not from Mississippi, it’s hard to claim the right to write about it,” Fisher-Wirth says. Although she has lived in the Magnolia State for the past 30 years, she says that Clay, who is fifth generation Mississippian, brought an authority to the collection that she could not. But anyone who reads Mississippi will find that Fisher-Wirth has a deep understanding of the complex lives of Mississippians.