Casey Cep

Casey Cep is a staff writer at The New Yorker. Her first book, Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee, was an instant New York Times bestseller and is available in paperback, hardcover, as an e-book, and as an audiobook. A proud graduate of the Talbot County Public Schools, she has an A.B. from Harvard College and an M.Phil. from the University of Oxford, where she studied as a Rhodes Scholar. She was born and raised on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, where she still lives with her family.

Casey Cep’s Furious Hours tells the stunning story of how one of America’s most beloved and enigmatic authors became obsessed with the story of the Reverend Willie Maxwell, a rural Alabaman preacher accused of murdering five of his family members for insurance money. Harper Lee, the renowned author of To Kill a Mockingbird, traveled back to her native state in the 1970s, hoping to write her own true-crime classic in the mold of In Cold Blood, which she had helped her friend Truman Capote research seventeen years earlier.

With the help of a savvy lawyer, Maxwell had evaded justice for years until a relative shot him dead at the funeral of his last victim. Despite hundreds of witnesses, Maxwell’s murderer was acquitted—thanks to the same attorney who had previously defended the Reverend. But despite the incredible story and years of obsessive research, Lee never finished her book. In Furious Hours, Cep picks up her mantle, bringing the remarkable tale of shocking murders, courtroom drama, and racial politics to life while also offering a deeply moving portrait of Lee, her struggle with fame and success, and the mystery of artistic creativity.

In her talks, Casey Cep spotlights Harper Lee’s life after To Kill a Mockingbird and tells the heartbreaking story of why she struggled to release another book. In addition to her lectures about Harper Lee, Cep recounts the fascinating origins and current implications of the true-crime genre and the history of fraud in American film, literature, and life.

Casey Cep is a staff writer at The New Yorker, and her work has also appeared in The New York Times and The New Republic, among other publications. She graduated from Harvard College before earning a master’s degree in theology from the University of Oxford, where she studied as a Rhodes Scholar. In 2019, she was officially announced as a Staff Writer for The New Yorker. She lives on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.