Spring is almost here, bringing with it literary events like the Virginia Festival of the Book. It starts Wednesday, March 16 and runs through Sunday, March 20. I'll be on a panel at NOON Saturday, March 19, at the CODE Building on Charlottesville's Downtown Mall. It's free and masks will be required. I'll be on a panel called "Fighting for Justice: When our institutions do not serve" with Benjamin Gilmer, author of the just-released "The Other Dr. Gilmer." Our moderator will be best-selling Richmond author, Kristen Green. So if you're looking for a road trip, check out the daily offerings -- with many great authors and books to choose from! I'm also featured on a new Podcast -- "GO Between the Covers" with Ann Bocock, who hosts "Between the Covers" for South Florida PBS.
May Your Gardens Bloom!

 Hi everyone! Thanks to readers like you, interest in THE ORGAN THIEVES keeps building -- leading to an interview with ABC News' anchor Linsey Davis on her evening livestream show, "ABC News Live Prime." After a delay, it's now set for Thursday, March 3. It's likely to be in the final segment of the 90-minute program that starts at 7 p.m. 
For other upcoming appearances -- all free, open to the public and safely masked -- check these out:
Thursday, Feb. 24 7-8:30 p.m. Book talk with readers at TUCKAHOE LIBRARY in Henrico County (near Three Chopt & Parham) at 1901 Starling Drive, Henrico, VA 23229.
Saturday, March 19, Noon-1 p.m. at the "Virginia Festival of the Book" in Charlottesville (at the CODE building on Downtown Mall). Panel discussion with author/physician Benjamin Gilmer ("The Other Gilmer"), moderated by Richmond author Kristen Green.  
Click here for more about the festival, a nearly week-long event that's packed with plenty of talent! 

Thanks for the many kind wishes shared with me after the Library of Virginia named The Organ Thieves winner of its 2021 Literary Award for Nonfiction. “This powerful book shines light on the unforeseen links between racial inequality and the race to perform the first human-to-human heart transplant in Virginia during the 1960s.”
The virtual ceremony was hosted Oct. 16 by best-selling author and award-winning filmmaker Adriana Trigiani.
I can’t thank each you enough – some for aiding my research, some for ideas in the writing process , and ALL for being readers. For without readers, books (and authors) are very lonely indeed!

Hi everyone! I hope you’ve had a fun & relaxing summer, despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, western fires, etc. Amid the plethora of bad news, I’d like to share some good news on the book front! The Organ Thieves has been selected  as a finalist for the Library of Virginia’s 2021 Literary Awards in the Nonfiction category. Since 1997, the library says, these awards have “celebrated Virginia writers and their contributions to the literary landscape of our state and nation.”
The event serves as the Library’s major fundraising event, so my book will join other finalists on sale the week of Oct. 11-16. The winners in three categories – nonfiction, fiction and poetry -- will be announced on Saturday, Oct. 16 in a virtual celebration. Award-winning Virginia author Adriana Trigiani will serve as host.
Each winner will receive an engraved crystal book and a monetary prize of $2,500. For awards information and a list of past winners and finalists, click here.
Finally, I’m set to appear on a virtual panel with the other two nonfiction finalists on Tuesday, Oct. 12 starting at 6 p.m. I’ll send more information as it becomes available.
Thanks for your continued support of The Organ Thieves as we continue to strive for social justice and equal healthcare for all Americans.

Thanks to everyone who asked such great questions at the recent Live Zoom event as part of the Richmond Public Law Library's Oliver Hill Book Club! I look forward to many more lively discussions ahead.

I'm honored to be appearing next Monday, May 10 at 6:30 p.m. at a public zoom event: The Oliver Hill Book Club. Click here to register! Sponsored by the Richmond Public Law Library, this one-hour event is named in honor of Oliver W. Hill (1907-2007), a Richmond African American attorney and Civil Rights activist. Mr. Hill helped win the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court Case -- Brown v. Board of Education -- that led to the end of the doctrine of "separate but equal" in public schools.

Opinion: It was a long journey to get my coronavirus vaccine. It was worth the wait.
Opinion by Chip Jones
The Washington Post, April 11,  2021
Metro/'Local Opinions" page C4:

Chip Jones is a Richmond-based writer and author of “The Organ Thieves: The Shocking Story of the First Heart Transplant in the Segregated South.”
 
When my bedroom phone rang early one recent Saturday morning, my natural inclination was to ignore it. Nothing good ever comes on the landline — even during the long wait for a coronavirus vaccine.
My wife and I had been signed up for weeks to get our shots through the Virginia Health Department, CVS, Kroger and so on. Our early efforts led to one invite from our home county, Henrico, that was actually meant for police, firefighters and other first responders.
“Whoops!” Henrico officials said in apologetic emails and news releases to thousands of disappointed citizens, including us.
False alarms about vaccines spread with viral intensity along our usually sedate suburban street. Drive down to Newport News or Roanoke, friends and neighbors said . . . or maybe Clarksville, wherever that is. My wife and I started Googling. We weren’t getting our shots, but we were receiving real-time geography lessons.
Eventually, though, all these “leads” started to take an emotional toll, not to mention cause sleep deprivation. Now, I say this as a 68-year-old man with no underlying conditions and who’s blessed with good health benefits. I face none of the well-documented struggles of health-care providers, teachers and others in the public sphere who should have been at the front of the vaccination line all along.
So how did so many other people get theirs first? This undeniable example of class and White privilege led to our decision not to travel out of the area to get a shot at some distant CVS pharmacy — whether it was east to Newport News, south to Clarksville near the North Carolina line, west to Charlottesville, or even as far away as Abingdon in far Southwest Virginia.
We would stay in place and wait our turn.
That’s why weeks later, when that Saturday phone call came, I tried to go back to sleep. My cellphone downstairs started rocking out. I had to go get it.
“Dad!” It was my very thoughtful daughter calling via Skype from abroad. “It’s opening up now. You have to try CVS!”
“Okay!” I said, wishing for a strong cup of coffee to match her intensity level. “We’ll check it out.”
“We” actually meant my wife, Debbie. She was the one who’d been putting in the most time checking the CVS website morning, noon and night. Rubbing sleep out of her eyes, she opened her iPad and set to work. She started by checking the site, but after typing in her age, and Zip code, and entering a date for a shot, there was no response. Even though all of the drugstores’ locations looked open across the state, nothing was coming up.
Taking another tack, Debbie dialed an 888 number and said “agent.” Finally, after so many weeks of silence and frustration, someone answered her call.
“Good morning!” she said. Soon she was engaged in a constructive chat with a young man who told her that, for him, it was the middle of the night.
He was working from home. This led to some comic moments, such as when he said, “Sorry, ma’am, my dog’s barking. Could you please repeat your numbers?”
Soon they were buzzing through a long registration form, easily overcoming any problems caused by distance or language.
Within 30 minutes, Debbie was assigned to a random location and her appointment times were coming in via text and email. After more form-filling, my information arrived as well.
“Thank you,” she told our distant deliverer. “Have a good night.”
“You too, ma’am,” he said.
But there was a catch. We had to head out of town to the arbitrarily chosen pharmacy site, some 100 miles to the northwest in Gainesville. After spending more time on Google Maps, a few days later we were cruising along what we call the back way to Dulles International Airport: Get off Interstate 95, take a deep breath of relief, then drive up U.S. 17 through the farms and bedroom communities of Fauquier County.
Some time later, we pulled up to a very large CVS. A group of baby boomers was lining up as though Jimmy Buffett tickets were going on sale.
Once Debbie’s phone app gave her a 15-minute notice, she was allowed inside. And because everything was running on time, I got in, too, well before my later appointment.
As we answered questions and rolled up our sleeves, two young, cordial pharmacists shared their stories of driving around Virginia this past winter helping fight the viral scourge. As it had with us, covid-19 had taken them out of their comfort zones, visiting new places in the mountainous regions around Woodstock and Harrisonburg, helping vulnerable people in nursing homes.
As I maintained my end of the conversation — no doubt from nervousness — I mentioned the fact that I didn’t plan to go inside to my church for Easter Sunday services, even if the church reopened by then.
“I hope we have outdoor services.”
My pharmacist, who wore a hijab, nodded and said she’d been thinking along the same lines. “We may have services outside our mosque.”
I shut my eyes and waited for the prick of a needle. But there wasn’t one.
“All done!” she said brightly.
For a moment in this troubled time, I actually felt protected — not only by the brilliant scientists who developed the Moderna vaccine, but by this gentle caregiver.
It was worth the wait.
 
 

South Florida PBS recently shared its broadcast of a very fine book show, "Between the Covers." It's hosted by Ann Bocock, a former broadcast journalist in Richmond, who said she was surprised by the many things she learned about Virginia's capital in The Organ Thieves. 

Also, if you missed the VCU Libraries Public Zoom event, here it is. Enjoy the great insights shared by VCU medical archivist Jodi Koste, as well as some thoughtful and provocative questions from many of you! Thanks to everyone who tuned in.

Finally, here's a very well-done piece in VCU's student newspaper, The Commonwealth Times, by Anya Sczerzenie, including my push for a public apology from the university about its historical amnesia regarding Bruce Tucker.