Spotlight for New Harmony: A Mother’s Story of Love and Loss by Leon E. Pettiway

New Harmony: A Mother’s Story of Love and Loss by Leon E. Pettiway

Published:  November 26, 2025 by Meishin Press

Nestled in the quiet beauty of New Harmony, South Carolina, Margaret comes of age in a world defined by the unspoken rules of the Jim Crow South. As a young girl, she learns what it means to be both Black and female in a society determined to confine her. As a mother, she discovers that love can be both a shield and a vulnerability.

When the murder of her son shatters her family, grief settles into every corner of her life. What follows is not a story of spectacle, but of reckoning. Through memory, faith, and the sustaining presence of community, Margaret must find a way to carry the weight of loss without losing herself. Rooted in Southern history and shaped by generational memory, this novel offers an intimate portrait of motherhood, endurance, and the fragile threads that bind families together.

Amazon: https://bit.ly/3NN680i

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/244474540-new-harmony

Leon E. Pettiway, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus at Indiana University, Bloomington, where his scholarship focused on race, environment, and criminal justice in urban America. Over the course of his academic career, he examined how structural inequality shapes lived experience and social outcomes. In later years, his work expanded to explore how Eastern and Western philosophical traditions might inform conversations about justice and morality. A fully ordained Buddhist monk in the Gelug tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, he now devotes his time to spiritual practice, teaching, and writing. New Harmony: A Mother’s Story of Love and Loss is his debut novel.  You can learn more on his website and follow him on Instagram.