“Like the women of Gee’s Bend, Alabama, who create masterpieces from cast-off fabrics, Phyllis Biffle-Elmore in Quilt of Souls: A Memoir uses snippets of history and fragments of memories to craft a narrative that is a powerful and poignant read.” — Jessica B. Harris, New York Times Bestselling author of High on the Hog

“A fascinating read that unravels exactly how us storytellers are born and made with the goal and purpose of retelling family history, culture, loves, losses, victories and tragedies of memorable people from the cradle to the grave. So, you take a young, scared city girl from Detroit, Michigan, and you drive her down to the country of Alabama farmland to be raised for nine years by her maternal grandmother, who sews historical and emotional quilts for the people of her Sumter County community to remember those who have passed on, not with just pictures and memories, but with their favorite clothes stitched together with the history and garments of others.” — Omar Tyree, New York Times Bestselling Author and NAACP Image Award Winner

“Quilt of Souls reminds me of Maya Angelou’s, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings. The moving tales of hardship, kindness and the unconditional love of family and neighbor can’t help but touch the reader’s heart in Biffle-Elmore’s memories of life with her extraordinary grandmother. I can’t wait to recommend Quilt of Souls to my own book club.” — Diane Chamberlain, New York Times Bestselling author of The Silent Sister and The Last House on the Street

“Elmore’s memoir of a childhood interrupted is profoundly moving, shedding light on a quintessentially American experience that is often overlooked. Sent from Detroit in the 1950s to live with her Grandma Lula Horn in rural Alabama, the little girl is nourished by the stories of family members who endeavored to survive the brutalities of the Jim Crow era. In the process of teaching her granddaughter how to honor the lives of their kith and kin in the patchwork quilts she crafts, Lula stitches Phyllistene’s shattered spirit back together and helps her to forge an identity shaped by the redemptive power of forgiveness.” — Susan Rivers, Award-winning author of The Second Mrs. Hockaday