A native Texan, Brandy T. Wilson teaches writing, literature, and gender & women’s studies at the University of Memphis and is the author of The Palace Blues, a finalist for the 2015 Lambda Literary Award.

Because of its connections to the blues, the river, and to layers of musical and Memphis history, Wilson chose Earnestine and Hazel’s as one of the locations for the book trailer for The Palace Blues, the story of a young girl, Frankie, coming of age in the blues scene of the 1920s, and her search for Jean Bailey, the blues singer she fell for and followed across the south.