Monica Chenault-Kilgore discussing and signing Long Gone, Come Home

Saturday, September 16 at 2pm ET 

Location: Joseph-Beth Cincinnati 

Join us for Monica Chenault-Kilgore discussing and signing Long Gone, Come Home. Optional RSVP is below, but not required to attend the event.

Spanning from the joyous peak of the 1930s jazz era to the Great Depression and civil rights movement, Long Gone, Come Home weaves a poetic tale of love, life, and loss as one woman learns the true meaning of home.

Birdie Jennings dreams of a big life beyond her small town of Mt. Sterling, Kentucky—beyond her mundane job tying tobacco leaves at Wrights Factory, beyond her position as the baby of the family. Her life changes when she meets smooth-talking Jimmy Walker. Jimmy makes big promises for an exciting life together, and Birdie is quickly swept off her feet. But some short years after they marry, Jimmy disappears without a trace, leaving Birdie hurt and alone with their two toddlers. Out of money and out of options, Birdie moves back home with her overbearing mother.

Just as she's settling into her new life, Birdie witnesses a gruesome murder and is urged to flee Mt. Sterling to avoid questioning. With nothing but a borrowed suitcase and a questionable note about a house in Cincinnati promised to Jimmy, she travels to the big city just as she and Jimmy dreamed, determined to put her life back together. Plunged into the bustling jazz scenes of the hottest nightclubs and backwoods juke joints, Birdie learns that finding her place among criminals and saints is tough—but she is tougher. Even when some harsh lessons threaten the life she’s created on her own terms…

Monica Chenault-Kilgore was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio and currently lives in Edison, New Jersey. She is a graduate of The Ohio State University School of Journalism. Her published works include Liberty and Justice for All…Profiles of Middlesex County African American Veterans of WWII and the Korean War which is available in the public library. She formerly worked as a Contributing Reporter for The Home News Tribune and The Courier News newspapers.