Early works of Harper Lee, 'To Kill a Mockingbird' author, set for release

A collection of unseen short fiction stories and essays from "To Kill a Mockingbird" author Harper Lee is set to be published later this year. 

Lee, who died in 2016 at age 89, published no new, full-length books after "To Kill a Mockingbird" in 1960. The upcoming collection will be the first work by Lee to be published since 2015, when she approved the release of "Go Set a Watchman," an early draft of "Mockingbird."

‘The Land of Sweet Forever’ by Harper Lee

The backstory:

 "The Land of Sweet Forever" compiles short fiction Lee wrote in the years before the 1960 release of her classic novel and includes essays completed between 1961 and 2006.

The stories and essays are set in the "Alabama schoolyards of Lee's youth" and "the luncheonettes and movie houses of midcentury Manhattan," according to the overview on Barnes & Noble’s website. 

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"The Land of Sweet Forever invites still-vital conversations about politics, equality, travel, love, fiction, art, the American South, and what it means to lead an engaged and creative life," the overview reads. "This is Harper Lee like you’ve never seen her before."

What they're saying:

 "As a member of Harper Lee’s surviving family, I know I speak for all of us in saying that we’re delighted that these essays, and especially the short stories, which we knew existed but were only recently discovered, have been found and are being published," the late author’s nephew, Dr. Edwin Conner, said in a statement to The Associated Press. 

"She was not just our beloved aunt, but a great American writer, and we can never know too much about how she came to that pinnacle," he said.

When will ‘The Land of Sweet Forever’ be published? 

Timeline:

‘The Land of Sweet Forever’ will be released on Oct. 21, 2025. 

It will include an introduction by Lee’s authorized biographer, Casey Cep.