author
Patti Carr Black
b. 1934
A lively guide to Mississippi’s art, history, and folklore, her books helped bring the state’s cultural life into sharper focus for generations of readers. She wrote with the eye of a historian and the warmth of someone deeply rooted in the place she was describing.
1 Audiobook
Mississippi Piney Woods: A Photographic Study of Folk Architecture
by Patti Carr Black
About the author
Born in Sumner, Mississippi, in 1934, Patti Carr Black built a long career as a writer, art historian, curator, and museum leader whose work centered on the culture of her home state. She studied at the Mississippi University for Women and later became closely associated with the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, where she helped develop public programs and exhibitions.
Black published more than twenty books on Mississippi art, literature, history, and folklore. She is especially known for Art in Mississippi, 1720–1980, a landmark survey of the state’s visual arts, and for other books that made regional history feel vivid, accessible, and personal.
Her work has been recognized beyond the page as well, including honors from Mississippi cultural institutions and a marker on the Mississippi Writers Trail. Across her writing and public history work, she has been praised for preserving stories that might otherwise have been overlooked and for showing how rich and varied Mississippi’s cultural heritage really is.