Elijah Wald is a much-traveled musician and music scholar. He is The New York Times bestselling author of Dylan Goes Electric, the source material for the current Oscar-nominated film, A Complete Unknown.

In his latest book, Jelly Roll Blues: Censored Songs and Hidden Histories (Da Capo), Wald takes readers on a journey into the hidden and censored world of early blues and jazz, guided by the legendary New Orleans pianist Jelly Roll Morton.

Wald won a Grammy Award for his album notes to The Arhoolie Records 40th Anniversary Box for which he was also nominated as a producer.

Wald is author of over a dozen books and has two solo albums out: Songster, Fingerpicker, Shirtmaker and Street Corner Cowboys.

For a fascinating overview of Wald’s musical interests: Elijah Wald • Music and Albums

He lives in Philadelphia.

In Preston Lauterbach’s illuminating Before Elvis: The African American Musicians Who Made the King (Grand Central Publishing), the veteran southern music author highlights the Black musicians who influenced Elvis Presley’s music and are finally receiving recognition and praise.

After Baz Luhrmann’s movie, Elvis, hit theaters, audiences and critics alike couldn’t help but question the Black origins of Elvis Presley’s music and style, reigniting a debate that has been circling for decades.

In Before Elvis, Lauterbach presents new research and extensive, previously unpublished interviews with the artists who blazed the way and the people who knew them.

Preston Lauterbach is author of The Chitlin’ Circuit, as well as two secret histories of Black culture, Beale Street Dynasty and Bluff City.

Preston has also co-authored three memoirs with significant figures in Black music, including Brother Robert (with the stepsister of bluesman Robert Johnson), Timekeeper (with Memphis soul drummer Howard Grimes), and Spirit of the Century (with the Blind Boys of Alabama).

His works have earned “Book of the Year” recognition from the Wall Street Journal, NPR, and Rolling Stone. He lives near Charlottesville, Virginia.

Jontavious Willis was born and raised in rural Georgia. His latest album is West Georgia Blues.

Blue Metamorphosis, his acoustic debut album (2016), garnered rave reviews in Living Blues and Blues & Rhythm and won the Blues Foundation’s International Blues Challenge 2018 Award for Best Self-Produced CD.

His sophomore album, Spectacular Class (2019) received a Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Album.

“That’s my Wonderboy, the Wunderkind. Jontavious is a great new voice of the 21st century in the acoustic blues. I just love the way he plays.” – Taj Mahal

Jontavious’s 2025 winter tour includes dates in France and the Netherlands.

Photo: Jontavious Willis website

Devreaux Baker is the recipient of the 2024 Willie Morris Award for Poetry.

The award is operated by the University of Mississippi’s Department of Writing and Rhetoric to honor the contributions and writing of Morris, former editor-in-chief (the youngest ever at age 32) of Harper’s Magazine and a longtime instructor, writer-in-residence and literary inspiration for students and non-students alike at Ole Miss and in Oxford.

Baker is the first poet laureate of Mendocino County, California, and a recipient of the PEN/Oakland Josephine Miles Poetry Award for her book Red Willow People.

Her poetry collections include Hungry Ghosts, Red Willow People, Out of the Bones of Earth, Beyond the Circumstance of Sight, and Light at the Edge.

The Willie Morris Awards were founded and funded by Morris’s Texas college roommate Dave Williams, and his wife, the late Reba White Williams.