Lynn Blackwell Denton

The milliner Lynn Blackwell Denton

Award-winning screenwriter, filmmaker, and visual artist Lynn Blackwell Denton tells the tale of a rebellious young white woman who struggles to make her own way in the Jim Crow South.

Keziah Simmons spends her days at Miss Wakefield's Academy wondering if she is destined to be bored by everything in life. She is caught between her politically radical father and a mother desperate to see her make a good marriage.

After breaking her engagement to the richest guy in town, Keziah heads to Atlanta to become a milliner. There she discovers shocking working conditions, an emerging suffragist movement, and a potential soul mate, Jack. But success-oriented Keziah must discover her authentic identity before she can offer her talents to the marching women and heal her relationships.

Keziah's story takes place against a background of sweeping change in the South and complex race relations within the suffrage movement. Denton also illuminates an era when fashion was woven into the domestic arts and became a vehicle for women's creativity. She suggests that with the passing of the Nineteenth Amendment expanded creative possibilities in all areas were opened for women.

This inspiring book is based on the screenplay of the same name, voted Second Finalist in the 2015 Bentonville Film Festival Screenwriting Competition.