Welcome to Bibb Country
Where the Land Remembers Everything
​From Kentucky to Chicago and beyond, rooted in seven generations of family, Bibb Country is a reckoning - a reclaiming of buried histories and living truths. In Bibb Country, O’Neal unearths the beauty, brutality, and resilience woven into the heart of one family and set against the sweep of American history.
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Through the lens of her family story, she exposes the tangled roots of enslavement, resistance, sexual violence, and survival—bringing into sharp, unforgettable focus a vision of who we are and who we choose to become.
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This is land writing redefined.
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This is literature that remembers what America forgets.
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About the Author
Lonnae is a senior writer at ESPN/Andscape, celebrated former columnist for The Washington Post, and the author of I’m Every Woman: Remixed Stories of Marriage, Motherhood and Work. Her voice is intimate, unflinching, and urgently relevant.
Bibb Country is a deeply personal and fiercely reported exploration of several generations of Lonnae's family, descendants of both enslavers and enslaved, set against the sweep of American history. With her signature lyricism and journalistic insight, Lonnae traces her family’s multigenerational roots from Russellville, Kentucky, to Southern Illinois and beyond, confronting legacy and loss, as well as trauma and triumph along the way.
"Bibb Country is a searing meditation on one American family's tangled origins, inseparable from the region where its members labored, struggled, and eventually strived. Its interrogation of the personal, the public, and the political is always vibrant, often intense, and consistently illuminating. Lonnae O'Neal stares history in the face and doesn't blink once."
- Jabari Asim, author of We Can't Breath
Book Tour Schedule
Thursday, October 23
Thursday, October 30
6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
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Thursday, November 6
6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
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Monday, November 17
7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.​
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Sunday, February 1, 2026
3 p.m. to 4 p.m.
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Author Talk & Book Signing
Hitching Post Hill
For the Hyattsville Preservation Association
Hyattsville, MD
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In Conversation with Tayari Jones
Acclaimed author of An American Marriage
Retreat by The Gathering Spot
Atlanta, GA
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​​​​Author Talk & Book Signing
Urban Reads Bookstore
Baltimore, MD​
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GP Speaks: An Evening with Author, Lonnae O'Neal
Moderated by Tracy Smith-Ducksworth
Grande Prairie Public Library
Hazel Crest, IL
Author Talk & Book Signing
Seminary Co-op Bookstore, located on the
Campus of the University of Chicago
Chicago, IL
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Author Talk & Book Signing
The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library
Washington, DC
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Watch this page for future tour dates!
In Conversation:
The Voice Behind Bibb Country
From conversations with fellow authors to readings, reflections, and real talk about writing, legacy, and land—this is where the story expands.
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Become a Bibb-liophile
Join our email list and get access to more information on Lonnae's comings, goings, and writings.