Hello everybody. Welcome to the program. This is the Other People podcast. I'm Brad

Listery and I'm in Los Angeles and I'm happy to be with you. Thank you for listening. I hope

you're doing okay wherever you happen to be. Don't forget to subscribe

to this show wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also subscribe on YouTube. Follow the program

on social media, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, and Blue Sky. So my guest today is Deshawn Charles

Winslow, author of a novel called Decent People.

I grew up in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, which is right next door to a small town called South Mills, North Carolina.

It is a town where people know, they may not know your name, they may not remember your name,

but they know that you are so-and-so's grandchild, you know, or so-and-so's nephew, and that you go

to so-and-so church. And it can be, you know, it can be hard. It can be hard living in a place like

that. It is a place where it is hard to have any anonymity.

And you also, you can't be, you can't be too different.

All right, that was Deshawn Charles Winslow.

His latest novel is called Decent People.

It is now available in trade paperback from Bloomsbury.

Decent People tells the story of a black community in a small southern town that is reeling from a triple homicide.

The story takes place in 1976 and the town in question is the fictional town of

West Mills, North Carolina, which first appeared in Deshawn's celebrated debut novel called In West Mills.

Decent People is about the toxicity of patriarchy and the corrosive effects of deep secrets.

It is a novel about shame, race, money, and the reckonings required to heal a fractured community.

I had a great time meeting Deshawn and talking with him about

his book, his life, and his approach to writing. That conversation is coming up momentarily.

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