NATCHEZ, Miss. — Greg Iles and Ser Seshsh Ab Heter-C. M. Boxley, both of Natchez, are featured in the Mississippi Encyclopedia, and their entries are spotlighted on the publication’s homepage.
Iles was a New York Times bestselling author whose acclaimed thrillers and mysteries were often set in and around Natchez. His works include “The Quiet Game,” “Turning Angel,” “The Devil’s Punchbowl,” “Natchez Burning,” and “Southern Man,” among others.
Iles was a friend and admirer of Stanley Nelson, the longtime editor of the Concordia Sentinel and author of “Devils Walking,” a book chronicling Ku Klux Klan violence in Southwest Mississippi during the 1960s. Iles drew inspiration from Nelson’s career in journalism.
Following Nelson’s death on June 5, 2025, at age 69, Iles published a moving tribute describing him as a “genuine hero” who always did the right thing regardless of fear or favor. Iles wrote that Nelson’s “brave and tireless work” inspired him to model Henry Sexton, the heroic journalist in his Natchez trilogy, after Nelson.
Iles won the 2015 Barry Award for Best Novel for “Natchez Burning” and received the Mississippi Author Award for Fiction for his 1995 thriller “Black Cross.”
Iles died of cancer on August 15, 2025. He was 65. His Mississippi Encyclopedia entry was written by Riley Moran of Tampa, Florida.
Boxley is a local historian, preservationist, and civil rights activist who worked with the Natchez Deacons for Defense and Justice during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.
He serves as coordinator of the Friends of the Forks of the Road Society and is known for his decades-long efforts to promote and preserve the history of the Forks of the Road slave market at 105 Liberty Road. The site, now managed by the National Park Service, was once the second-largest slave market in the Deep South.
In March 2026, Boxley donated his Forks of the Road exhibition to the Southwest Mississippi Center for Culture & Learning at Alcorn State University, Lorman Campus.
That same month, the Natchez Historical Society honored him with its Historic Preservation Award, which recognizes individuals or organizations that have made significant contributions to historic preservation or the study of history in the Natchez area.
Boxley’s Mississippi Encyclopedia entry was written by Roscoe Barnes III, cultural heritage tourism manager for Visit Natchez.
The Mississippi Encyclopedia is published by the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi and has been funded by the Mississippi Humanities Council.
The entries on Iles and Boxley may be viewed at https://mississippiencyclopedia.org/
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