Telling Dixie Goodbye, by Scott Oglesby

Born into the provincial mores of the Ark-La-Tex, Scott Oglesby spends a lifetime trying to outrun his Dixie roots. From fraternity hazings and racial justice detours to the kaleidoscopic chaos of seventies counterculture, his journey winds through Cleveland classrooms, California stages, and New York reinventions—where humor, heartbreak, and a few cringy choices shape a life lived on the edge of belonging. As sobering loss, family reckonings, and hard-won wisdom accumulate, Oglesby confronts the complicated inheritance of place—revealing that leaving is only the beginning of understanding where you belong.

“In this fine memoir, Scott Oglesby confronts his self-doubt as he barrels through numerous states, romances, risky hustles, and creative endeavors, taking us on a wildly entertaining and acutely observed romp of characters. An authentic, often laugh-out-loud, dramatic, rewarding trip.” – Suzanne McConnell, author of Kurt Vonnegut: Pity the Reader

“Telling Dixie Goodbye is a hilarious and heartbreaking memoir where madcap scenes with famous jazz singers, soap queens and rednecks mix with personal stories and family tragedies. Scott’s intimate narrative feels like sitting around a campfire, hearing tall tales that are true and small tales, large with meaning.” – Terrence Ross, novelist, writer/director of the award-winning film El Padrino.

“In this funny and insightful memoir, Scott Oglesby wobbles through the troubled region of his birth, adolescence, and beyond. Shadowed by a fearsome beauty queen sister, Oglesby forges a life of his own, but never leaves the best of the South behind, reminding us that home is not a place outside ourselves, but resides within our hearts.” – Margo Hammond, co-organizer, Dalí Museum Literary Salon, St. Pete, FL

“Telling Dixie Goodbye is a sneakily moving, rollicking story of an Arkansas boy, morphing into a bohemian actor/writer and budtender, drifting North, West and East in a kind of dazed innocence, Oglesby will remind you what it was like for the not-famous, not-crazy, offbeat, and hopeful multitude.” – Margaret Diehl, editor, novelist; three NYT Notable Books, and an NEA Fellowship.

“Scott Oglesby is a gifted Southern American writer, special in his authentic understanding of the deep South. Telling Dixie Goodbye is a hopeful work that explores a new America at work on itself.” – Carman Moore, world-renowned composer, conductor, author, music critic and educator.