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NATCHEZ – A legendary racehorse, Natchez history and a Pulitzer Prize winning author are coming together for the community-wide Natchez Reads 2025.

The program, sponsored by the Mississippi Book Festival, the National Park Service and the Historic Natchez Foundation, focuses on community members reading a single book that resonates with the history of the community. The community will share the experience of reading, discussing and exploring the themes of the book throughout a series of free events, culminating in a talk by Geraldine Brooks, a Pulitzer Prize winning author.

It is, in many ways, a big, extended book club.

“It’s going to be a lot of fun,” said Betty Jo Harris, who works with the Historic Natchez Foundation and sits on the board of the Mississippi Book Festival. “We’re going to read the book together and talk about it. What can be wrong with that?”

“The executive director wanted to do some sort of programming in Southwest Mississippi and I jumped on it,” Harris said.

The result is the first-ever Natchez Reads program, featuring “Horse” by Brooks. The historical fiction novel is based on the true story of racehorse and sire Lexington, who was trained in Natchez in the early 1850s by John Benjamin Pryor on the plantation of Adam L. Bingaman.

“It’s a fascinating story,” Harris said. “It brings in some history and has a lot of connection to Natchez.”

Natchez Reads 2025 includes four free events:

• A talk on “The Sporting Life of William Johnson” by Kathleen Bond, Superintendent at the Natchez National Historical Park, at 6 p.m. Thursday, May 1.
• A book discussion on “Horse” led by Harris at 6 p.m. Tuesday, July 22.
• A conversation with author Mary Beth Gibson, a descendant of Benjamin Pryor and author of “Pryor Knowledge,” at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 26.
• And the conversation with Brooks, author of “Horse,” at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 12.

All events take place at the Historic Natchez Foundation, 108 S. Commerce St., except for the conversation with Brooks, which takes place at the Grand Hotel.

The Judge George W. Armstrong Public Library will have copies of “Horse” available for check-out. Additional copies are for sale at Silver Street Gifts and at the William Johnson House, operated by the NPS.

“We’re also on Facebook as Natchez Reads 2025, so people can find us there,” Harris said.