Many, many thanks to all the wonderful writers who helped make the 2013 Alabama Book Festival such a great success!
Dr. Frank "Doc" Adams - Doc: The Story of a Birmingham Jazz Man (biography) is a lifelong educator and a master musician whose credits include work with Sun Ra, Duke Ellington, Erskine Hawkins, and others. For five ecades he served Birmingham City Schools, first as teacher and next as director of the
district’s music programs. Inducted to the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame in 1978, Doc continues to teach free Saturday jazz lessons at the Hall of Fame, where he also offers deeply personal, informative and entertaining tours. His new book is Doc: The Story of a Birmingham Jazz Man, written in collaboration with Burgin Mathews.
10:45-11:15 in the Church
Alabama Readers Theatre - (dramatic readings) The Readers' Theatre will present undergraduate writing by Nelle Harper Lee while she was at the University of Alabama: the one-act play Now Is the Time for All Good Men. . ., a political farce; her humor columns from Rammer Jammer including "The Co-Ed Who Let It Alone" and "Some Writers of Our Times: A Very Informal Essay"; and "What Price Ulysses?" The players are Bill Cobb, Loretta Cobb, Jennifer Horne, and Don Noble. 4:00-4:45 in the Church
Peggy Vonsherie Allen - The Pecan Orchard (memoir) Peggy was born the twelfth of thirteen children in Greenville, AL. She graduated from the University of Alabama with a degree in civil engineering and has authored a number of technical papers published in national and international professional engineering journals. She lives outside Atlanta. The Pecan Orchard, a compelling memoir of growing up in the segregated South, is her second book. 1:45-2:15 in the Church
Walter Bennett - Leaving Tuscaloosa (fiction) Walter is a former civil rights attorny, judge, and law professor who has published short fiction in both print and online journals, including Voices and the Courtland Review. A recent essay on trout fishing, “Black Quill,” appears in Astream: American Writers on Fly Fishing. He has written numerous articles on the law; and a highly acclaimed book, The Lawyer's Myth: Reviving Ideals in the Legal Profession. A native of Tuscaloosa, AL, he lives in Chapel Hill, NC. His first novel is Leaving Tuscaloosa. 3:15-3:45 in the Church
Angela Benson - The Genesis House series (inspirational romance) Angela is an engineer and teaches educational technology at the University of Alabama. She is also a writer and has published twelve novels, two novellas, and a nonfiction writing book. Her books have appeared on national, regional and local bestseller lists, and she has won several writing awards, including Best Multicultural Romance from Romantic Times magazine and Best Contemporary Ethnic Romance from Affaire de Coeur magazine. She has won the Emma Award for Best Inspirational Romance three times, and one of her books was named an African-American Book Club Pick at Books-a-Million.
10:45-11:15 in Moulton House
Sonny Brewer - The Poet of Tolstoy Park (fiction) Sonny is the author of the novels The Poet of Tolstoy Park (which is in production as a movie), A Sound Like Thunder, Cormac - The Tale of a Dog Gone Missing, and The Widow and the Tree. He also edited the anthology series Stories from the Blue Moon Café and Don't Quit Your Day Job: Acclaimed Authors and the Day Jobs They Quit. He founded Over the Transom Bookstore in Fairhope, AL, and its literary conference, Southern Writers Reading, and he is board chairman and founder of the nonprofit Fairhope Center for Writing Arts. He is former editor of the Mobile Bay Monthly magazine, he published and edited the Eastern Shore Quarterly magazine, and heedited the Red Bluff Review.
9:00-9:45 in Moulon House
James Cherry - Still a Man and Other Stories (short fiction) James
is the author of five books. His poetry collection Honoring the Ancestors was nominated for an NAACP Image Award in 2009. Still A Man and Other Stories, a collection of short fiction, was nominated for a Lillian Smith Book Award and was a finalist for the Next Generation Indie Book Award. His second collection of verse, Loose Change, was published in 2013. Cherry, an MFA candidate in creative writing at the University of Texas at El Paso, lives in Tennessee with his wife, Tammy and is preparing a novel for publication. 1:00-1:30 in Moulton House
Lauren Clark - Dancing Naked in Dixie (fiction) Lauren writes contemporary women’s fiction set in the Deep South. A former TV anchor and journalist, she is a reformed news junkie, a non-reformed coffee drinker, and an official library geek. Her big loves are family, paying it forward, eight hours of sleep a night, and homemade macaroni and cheese. She lives near the Alabama Gulf Coast where she is surrounded by family and true-blue friends who inspire her writing and keep her sane. She has won awards for both Stay Tuned and her latest book, Dancing Naked in Dixie and is currently working on her third novel.
3:15-3:45 in the South Tent
Charles G. Cleveland - Once a Fighter Pilot: The Story of Lt. Gen. Charles G. "Chick" Cleveland (memoir) Chick graduated from the U.S. Military Academy and logged more tha 4,500 flying hours during his 35-year Air Force career. He was a jet fighter ace in combat in Korea in 1952, shootin down five MiG-15 aircraft, with an additional probable and four damaged. He is president of the American Fighter Aces Association. A founder of the Montgomery Area Food Bank, he has been actively involved in local professional and community affairs and is president of both the Alabama World Affairs Council and SAYNO of Montgomery. Once a Fighter Pilot, by Warren Trest, is his story. 1:45-2:15 in Moulton House
Tim Dorsey - The Riptide Ultra-Glide (fiction) Tim grew up in Riviera Beach, FL, a small town about an hour north of Miami, and graduated from Auburn University. He was a police and courts reporter for the Alabama Journal, Montgomery’s defunct evening newspaper and a general assignment reporter, political reported and copy desk editor for the Tampa Tribune. He has published sixteen novels in several languages; his latest novel is The Riptide Ultra-Glide. He lives in Tampa, FL, with his family
1:45-2:15 in the South Tent
MItchell L. H. Douglas - \blak/\ \al-fa bet\ (poetry) Mitchell is a native of Louisville, KY, and lives in Indianapolis, IN, where he teaches at Purdue University. His poetry has appeared in Callaloo, The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South, Crab Orchard Review, and Zoland Poetry Volume II, among other publications. He is a founding member of the Affrilachian Poets, a Cave Canem fellow, and poetry editor for PLUCK!: the Journal of Affrilachian Arts & Culture. He has been nominated for an NAACP Image Award, and his latest poetry collection, \blak\ \al-fə bet\, won the 2011 Lexi Rudnitsky/Editor's Choice Award. 1:45-2:15 in the Poetry Tent
Jeremy Downes - Poems. Too Small to Read (poetry) Jeremy received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and teaches writing at Auburn University. He has published a chapbook, and his first collection of poetry is The Lost Atlas of Desire. He also manages HyperEpos, a substantial collection of links to epic texts, resources, and materials on the Web. 3:15-3:45 in the Poetry Tent
Kathleen Driskell - Peck and Pock: A Graphic Poem (graphic poetry) Kathleen teaches creative writing and is the Associate Program Director of Spalding University’s brief-residency Master of Fine Arts in Writing Program in Louisville, KY. Her poems have appeared in many nationally known literary magazines including North American Review, the Southern Review, Cortland Review, and Rattle, and her latest publication is Peck and Pock: A Graphic Poem. She lives outside Louisville with her husband and two children in an old country church built before the Civil War.
11:30-12:00 in the Church
Jennifer Echols - Such a Rush (young adult fiction) Jennifer was born in Atlanta and grew up in Alexander City, AL, on beautiful Lake Martin—a setting that has inspired many of her books. She lives in Birmingham with her husband and son. Her nine romantic novels for young adults have been published in seven languages and have won the National Readers’ Choice Award, the Aspen Gold Readers’ Choice Award, the Write Touch Readers’ Award, the Beacon, and the Booksellers’ Best Award. Her novel Going Too Far was a Romance Writers of America RITA award finalist and was nominated by the American Library Association as a Best Book for Young Adults. Her firt adult romance novel is being published in 2013, with many more of her teen novels scheduled for the next few years. Her latest teen novel is Such a Rush. 10:45-11:15 in the North Tent
Therese Anne Fowler - Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald (fiction) Therese is an Illinois native and a graduate of North Carolina State University, where she earned a BA in sociology and an MFA in creative writing. She taught undergraduate fiction writing and was an editorial assistant for the literary magazine Obsidian III before leaving to write fiction full-time. Her first novel, Exposure, was published in 2011.
Therese has two grown sons and two nearly grown stepsons, and currently lives
with her husband in North Carolina. Her latest novel is Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald.
2:30-3:00 in the South Tent
Frye Gaillard - The Books That Mattered: A Reader's Memoir (memoir) writer in residence at the University of South Alabama, Frye is the author of more than twenty works of nonfiction, including Cradle of Freedom: Alabama and the Movement That Changed America, winner of the 2005 Lillian Smith Award for best southern nonfiction, and the 2007 nonfiction Book of the Year recognition from the Alabama Library Association. He has received the Clarence Cason Award for Nonfiction and the Alabama Library Association Book of the Year Award. He lives near Mobile, AL, with his wife, Nancy, and his latest book is The Books that Mattered: A Reader’s Memoir. 2:30-3:00 in the Church
Andrew Glaze - the Poet Laureate of Alabama Andrew, Alabama’s new poet laureate, grew up in Birmingham, AL, and graduated from Harvard University. He has received Poetry magazine's Eunice Tietjens Award, and the American Library Association included his book Damned Ugly Children in its Notable Books List for 1966. Library Journal chose I Am the Jefferson County Courthouse as one of the best small press titles of 1981. He has won a National Hackney Award, and his selected poems Someone Will Go On Owing received the Best Book of the Year Award from the Southeastern Booksellers' Association in 1998. He was also the first recipient of the ABA Online Award the same year. His latest book is Remembering Thunder.
10:45-11:15 in the Poetry Tent
Juliana Gray - Roleplay (poetry) Juliana is the author of two books of poetry. Her most recent collection, Roleplay, won the 2010 Orphic Prize. Recent poems have appeared in or are forthcoming from Barrow Street, Measure, 32 Poems, Blackbird and elsewhere. An Alabama native, Juliana lives in western New York and is an associate professor of English at Alfred University.
11:30-12:00 in the Poetry Tent
Carolyn Haines (writing as R. B. Chesterton) - The Darkling (horror) Carolyn is the 2010 Harper Lee Award honoree and a former recipient of a writing fellowship from the Alabama State Council on the Arts. She was also honored in 2009 with the Richard Wright Award for Literary Excellence. The Darkling, a dark novel set in Coden, AL, marks the debut of her pseudonym R.B. Chesterton. Her Mississippi Delta Mystery series, the 13th novel of which will be published May 21, Smarty Bones, has won numerous awards. She is an avid animal activist and urges everyone to spay and neuter their companion animals. 10:45-11:15 in the South Tent
Derrick Harriell - Cotton (poetry) Derrick’s most recent poetry collection is Cotton, and another collection, Ropes, is forthcoming. He has published in Blackbird, Poetry Quarterly, Booth, Tidal Basin Review, Verse Wisconsin, Main Street Rag, The Red Clay Review, and others. He has an MFA in poetry from Chicago State University and teaches at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, where he is a PhD candidate. 12:15-12:45 in the Poetry Tent
Carolyn Hembree - Skinny (poetry) Carolyn graduated from Birmingham-Southern College and has worked as a cashier, house cleaner, cosmetics consultant, telecommunicator, actor, receptionist, paralegal, and freelance writer. She also alphabetized business cards in a hotel basement next to a ten-pound bag of defrosting chicken parts. She has an MFA from the University of Arizona and teaches writing at the University of New Orleans. Her poems have appeared in Colorado Review, DIAGRAM, and Gulf Coast, among other journals and anthologies. She has received three Pushcart Prize nominations, a PEN Writers Grant, a Southern Arts Federation Grant, and a Louisiana Division of the Arts Fellowship Award in Literature. Her first poetry collection is Skinny.
1:00-1:30 in the Poetry Tent
LIta Hooper - Thunder in Her Voice: The Story of Sojourner Truth (poetry) Lita is a poet, playwright and educator. She has a BA in English and Humanities from Clark Atlanta University, and she lives and teaches in Altanta. Her work has appeared in several anthologies, two chapbooks, a critical biography, and in online and print journals and magazines, including the Chattahoochee Review, Essence, and The Drunken Boat, among others. She is a co-editor of 44 on 44: Forty-Four African American Writers on the Election of the 44th President of the United States, and her latest poetry collection is Thunder in Her Voice: The Narrative of Sojourner Truth.
2:30-3:00 in the Poetry Tent
May Lamar - Brother Sid: A Novel of Sidney Lanier (historical fiction) May landed her first newspaper job in 1980, when she was hired as a cub reporter for the Gastonia (North Carolina) Gazette. She later worked as a reporter for the Summit County (Colorado) Sentinel, the Fairhope (Alabama) Courier and the Montgomery Advertiser. She left journalism for advertising copywriting soon after the birth of her first child and ran a small agency for 20 years. Brother Sid is her first published novel and her fourth book. She and her husband, author/publisher Rich Donnell, live in Montgomery, AL. 1:45-2:15 in the Log Cabin Tent
Kerry Madden - Nothing Fancy About Kathryn and Charlie (children's) Kerry thinks every child has stories to tell, whether it's through poetry, stories, or art. It's why she loves to do writing workshops to help kids find the stories they want to tell—and she’ll conduct a workshop for kids at the Festival. Her latest book, illustrated by her daughter, Lucy Madden-Lunsford, is Nothing Fancy About Kathryn and Charlie, a picture book, illustrated by her daughter, Lucy Madden-Lunsford, about the friendship of Kathryn Tucker Windham and Charlie Lucas. Kerry and Lucy will conduct a workshop for young writers at the festival.
10:00-10:30 in the North Tent and a Writing Workshop 12:15-12:45 in the North Tent
Lucy Madden-Lunsford - Nothing Fancy About Kathryn and Charlie (children's) Lucy will graduate from Sarah Lawrence College in Mayand will be traveling with her mother, Kerry Madden, to rural libraries in Alabama to do writing workshops as part of a creative arts grant from UAB. Lucy grew up in Los Angeles, the daughter of a elementary school teacher, and focused on art, sports, theatre, and photography. She is the maternal granddaughter of a former college football coach, Joe Madden, and the paternal granddaughter of a fiddle player, the late Jim Lunsford, of the Smoky Mountain Boys and Reno & Smiley. Lucy has deep roots in the South and is thrilled to be part of the Alabama Book Festival. as the illustrator of Nothing Fancy About Kathryn and Charlie, a picture book, written by Kerry Madden, about the friendship of Kathryn Tucker Windham and Charlie Lucas. Lucy and Kerry will conduct a workshop for young writers at the festival.
10:00-10:30 in the North Tent and a Writing Workshop 12:15-12:45 in the North Tent
Tasia Malakasis - Tasia's Table: Cooking with the Artisan Cheesemaker at Belle Chevre (cookbook) Tasia is owner and president of Belle Chevre, an award-winning cheese producer in Elkmont, AL. Deep roots in Southern and the Greek cultures formed a magical link to food and the allure of the table that Tasia was not able to shake during fifteen years in high-tech firms. During sabatticals at the Culinary Institute of America she figured out how to follow through on her crazy passion for food, and finding an Alabama cheese in an upmarket New York store led her back home to embrace her love of food and the communal table. Now a nationally reknowned cheesemaker recognized by everyone from Oprah to Garden & Gun and Southern Living, she celebrates cheese, southern, and Greek food in her first cookbook, Tasia’s Table: Cooking with the Artisan Cheesemaker at Belle Chevre. 11:30-12:00 in the Log Cabin Tent
Marie Manilla - Shrapnel (fiction) Marie is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her fiction has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Prairie Schooner, Mississippi Review, The Long Story, Portland Review, and others. Her collection of stories, Still Life with Plums, was a finalist for the Weatherford award and ForeWord Reviews Book of the Year. She has lived in both Huntingdon, WV, and Houston, TX, the settings for Shrapnel, which won the Fred Bonnie Award for Best First Novel.
2:30-3:00 in Moulton House
Barry Marks - Sounding (poetry) Barry is a Birmingham attorney, president of the Alabama State Poetry Society, and the author of Sounding, a book of poetry dealing with grief, loss and recovery. His first poetry collection, Possible Crocodiles, was named 2010 Book of the Year by the Poetry Society. He has been published in Folio, The Lyric, Black River Review, Legal Studies Forum, WordWrights!, Aura, Amaryllis, Calliope, and others and is a frequent reader, lecturer and workshop leader.
10:00-10:30 in the Poetry Tent
Burgin Mathews - Doc: The Story of a Birgmingham Jazz Man (biography) Burgin Mathews, a native of Montgomery, is a writer and teacher who lives in Birmingham, AL. He is a former High School Literary Arts Award winner, and his first book, written in collaboration with jazz elder Frank “Doc” Adams, is Doc: The Story of a Birmingham Jazz Man. More of Burgin’s writing, including the self-published “zine,” Thirty Birmingham Songs, can be found at www.ladymuleskinnerpress.com. His “downhome roots radio hour,” The Lost Child, streams online at Birmingham Mountain Radio every Saturday (9-10 a.m. CST) and Tuesday (9-10 p.m.).
10:45-11:15 in the Church
Janet McAdams - Red Weather (fiction) Janet grew up in Alabama and is of mixed Scottish, Irish, and Creek ancestry. She has taught in AL, GA, TX, OK, Central America, and the United Kingdon and now teaches at Kenyon College, OH. She founded Salt Publishing's award-winning Earthworks book series, which foluses on indigenous and contemporary Latin American poetry. She has published two poetry collections, Feral and The Island of Lost Luggage, which won the Diane Decorah First Book Award from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas and the American Book Award. Her first novel is Red Weather. 11:30-12:00 in Moulton House
Beck McDowell - This Is Not a Drill (young adult fiction) Beck is a former middle and high school advanced placement English teacher who sponsored newspapers, literary magazines, Shakespeare festival, medieval banquets book fiars, art exhibits, and trips to museums, operas, and plays. She is also a Young Adult author with emphasis on the Adult. The American Library Association selected her YA thriller and first novel, This Is Not a Drill, as a YALSA 2013 Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers. She writes at home in Huntsville, AL, and in New Orleans, her hometown and the setting of her nonfiction book, Last Bus Out and also of her next novel. Beck loves fast-paced books with strong plots, lots of dialogue and lean prose. She has been known to read amazing phrases she’s found aloud to anyone nearby.
1:00-1:30 in the North Tent
Michael Morris - Man in the Blue Moon (fiction) Michael is a fifth-generation native of Perry, FL. He graduated from Auburn University, has an MFA from Spalding University, and lives in Alabama. His essays have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Dallas Morning News and the Minneapolis Star Tribune. His first novel, A Place Called Wiregrass, won the Christy Award for Best First Novel. His second novel, Slow Way Home, was one of the top three recommended books by the American Booksellers Association and was named one of the best novels of the year by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. His latest novel is The Man in the Blue Moon.
1:00-1:30 in the South Tent
Robert Moss - Barbecue: The History of an American Institution (nonfiction - food) Robert is a food writer and culinary historian from Charleston, SC. He reviews restaurants for the Charleston City Paper and is the author of Barbecue: The History of an American Institution. 10:45-11:15 in the Log Cabin Tent
Morgan Murphy - Southern Living Off the Eaten Path: Favorite Southern Dives and 150 Recipes That Made Them Famous (cookbook) Morgan, an Alabama native, is a best-selling author, editor, car enthusiast, and decorated naval officer known to many as "America's funniest food critic." Millions have read his trademark wit in Vanity Fair, Forbes, Esquire, Garden Design, Harper's Bazaar, the New York Post, and Southern Living, where he served as travel editor, food critic, and national spokesman. His last book, Southern Living Off the Eaten Path: Favorite Southern Dives and 150 Recipes That Made Them Famous, became an immediate best seller. His first book, I Love You–Now Hush, co-authored with Melinda Rainey Thompson, garnered critical acclaim and awards from the Independent Book Publishers Association, the American Library Association, and other. Murphy has appeared on The Today Show, Fox & Friends, CNN, Sirius/XM, and NPR. He earned an MBA from the University of Oxford and is a veteran of the war in Afghanistan as a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy. 10:00-10:30 in the Log Cabin Tent
Mystic Order of East Alabama Fiction Writers (Joanne Camp, Marian Carcache, Mary Dansak, Gail Langley, Judith Nunn, -and Margee Bright Ragland) - The Ploy of Cooking (cookbook) The Mystic Order meets once a month over dinner and drinks not just to unwind, but to also share their poems, musings and artwork, all of which have, in a decade of existence, culminated in two published books. Their latest book, The Ploy of Cooking, is a hybrid of fictional short stories that are loosely
based on each member's lives and are accompanied with a recipe that uniquely goes well with each anecdote. 12:15-12:45 in the Log Cabin Tent
Name That Book (quiz show game). Remember The Newlywed Game? Well, consider this The Newlyread Game.... In the spirit of NPR's Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me! Kirk Curnutt and Ashley Gordon, co-hosts of Reading for the Rest of Us, will lead an all-star panel of book experts on a pun-ishing test of literary knowledge. Come and get your inner Bob Eubanks on! Attendees have a chance to win door prizes if they can prove their sense of humor is as silly as ours. Reading for the Rest of Us is a talk show produced through Troy University's Capital City Connection TV about the role of books in our lives. Episodes are broadcast on CCC-TV and are available on YouTube. Check out their Facebook page, too. 1:00-1:30 in the Log Cabin Tent
Sena Jeter Naslund - Adam & Eve (fiction) Sena, a native of Birmingham, AL, graduated from Birmingham-Southern College and has an MA and PhD from the University of Iowa. She is Writer in Residence at the University of Louisville; program director of the Spalding University brief-residency MFA in Writing; and Kentucky Poet Laureate. She is also the editor of the Louisville Review and the Fleur-de-Lis Press (both founded by her in 1976). She is the author of two collections of stories: Ice Skating at the North Pole and The Disobedience of Water and six novels, the latest of which is Adam and Eve. She has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Kentucky Foundation for Women, and the Kentucky Arts Council, and she has won the Harper Lee Award and the Southeastern Library Association Fiction Award. 12:15-12:45 in the South Tent
Judith Hillman Paterson - What My Mother Gave Me: Thirty-one Women on the Gifts That Mattered Most (anthology, memoir) Judith is a writer and teacher of writing who grew up in Montgomery, AL. She graduated from Hollins College and Auburn University, and she taught writing, literature, and journalism at Auburn and the University of Maryland. For five years she hosted, wrote, and produced an interview show featuring accomplished writers and their work on UMTV. She has published numerous articles, columns, and book reviews in scholarly journals, magazines, anthologies, and newspapers. She is the author of four books, including her memoir, Sweet Mystery: A Book of Remembering. Her essay “The Gift Twice Given” is collected in the anthology What My Mother Gave Me: Thirty-one Women on the Gifts That Mattered Most. She has sent the last few years beside a lake in North Carolina working on a historical novel set in the Alabama Black Belt. She recently moved back to Montgomery to complete the novel.
1:00-1:30 in the Church
Alice Randall - The Diary of B. B. Bright Possible Princess (children's) Alice is the author of four adult novels, the latest of which, Ada’s Rules, reflects her role as an innovative food activist committed to reforms that support healthy bodies and healthy communities. She is a Harvard-educated African-American novelist who lives in Nashville, TN, where she is a professor at Vanderbilt University and teaches African-American childfren’s literature. She and her daughter, Caroline Randall Williams, were nominated for an NAACP Image Award for their children’s book, The Diary of B. B. Bright Possible Princess. 1:45-2:15 and again at 2:30-3:00 in the North Tent
Ameerah Sanders is a senior in Booker T. Washington's Creative Writing Magnet (Montgomery, AL) and was second place winner in the Statewide Original Poetry Competition of 2013 Poetry Out Loud. Her play “Speakeasy” received first place for drama in the Alabama Thespian Festival, and it also received a drama certificate of merit in the 2013 High School Literary Arts Awards of the Alabama Writer's Forum. Ameerah plans to continue writing after high school. 3:15-3:45 in the Poetry Tent
Carroll Dale Short - I Left My Heart in Shanghi, Alabama (essays) Dale, a native of Walker County, AL, is a journalist, fiction writer, columnist, public radio commentator, playwright, multimedia producer, teacher, and grandfather. He was grand-prize winner of the first Redbook Magazine young author fiction competition. The winning entry, "The Mine at Saragossa," is one of the stories featured in his collection Turbo's Very Life, a 30-year retrospective of his best short fiction that has appeared in magazines. I Left My Heart in Shanghi, Alabama is a collection of his columns in his hometown newspaper, the Daily Mountain Eagle. 10:00-10:30 in the Church
John Sledge - Southern Bound: A Gulf Coast Journalist on Books, Writers, and Pilgrimages of the Heart (essays) John, senior architectural historian for the Mobile Historic Development Commission, was the books editor for the Mobile Press-Register and is a member of the National Book Critics Circle. He graduated from Auburn University and has a master's degree in historic preservation from Middle Tennessee State University. He is the author of four books, the latest of which is Southern Bound: A Gulf Coast Journalist on Books, Writers, and Pilgrimages of the Heart. He and his wife, Lynn, live in Fairhope, AL. 10:00-10:30 in the South Tent
Warren A. Trest - Once a Fighter Pilot: The Story of Korean War Ace Lt. Gen. Charles G. "Chick" Cleveland (biography) Warren, former Air Force senior
historian, has authored and coauthored more than fifty military histories and studies. He was awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze Star as a U.S. Army combat reporter in the Korean War, and the Medal for Civilian Service while serving as an Air Force historian in Vietnam. His book, Air Commando One: Heinie Aderholt and America’s Secret Air Wars, was nominated for the Bancroft Prize for distinguished works in American history. His latest book is Once a Fighter Pilot: The Story of Lt. Gen. Charles G. “Chick” Cleveland.
1:45-2:15 in Moulton House
Rickey Butch Walker - Appalachian Indians of the Warrior Mountains (history) Butch, a native of the Warrior Mountains of north Alabama, descends from Scots Irish, Cherokee, and Creek ancestry and is a member of the Echota Cherokee tribe in Alabama. He has a post-graduate degree in biology, education, and supervision, and he worked for 35 years for the Lawrence Co., AL, school system. He is director of the Indian Education Program and Oakville Indian Mounds Park and Museum, a U.S. Department of Education national showcase project. He has written several books about Native American history, including Appalachian Indians of the Warrior Mountains and Doublehead: Last Chickamauga Cherokee Chief. 2:30-3:00 in the Log Cabin Tent
Lila Quintero Weaver - Darkroom: A Memoir in Black and White (graphic memoir) Lila was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and immigrated to the U.S. with her family when she was five; Alabama has been her home ever since. A self-taught artist with experience in portraiture, calligraphy, landscape and other genres of painting, she is a graduate of the University of Alabama. Darkroom: A Memoir in Black & White is her first major publication and has been named a finalist for the Small Press Expo 2012 Ignatz Award for Promising New Talent and for the graphic-novel category in the 2012 Cybils. The Children's Literature and Reading Special Interest Group designated the book as a winner in its 2013 Notable Books for a Global Society.
11:30-12:00 in the Church
Caroline Randall Williams - The Diary of B. B. Bright Possible Princess (children's) Caroline is the great-granddaughter of the man many consider the father of African-American children’s literature, Arna Bontemps. Like Bontemps, Caroline is an award-winning poet and a children's author. Caroline and her mother, Alice Randall, graduated from Harvard University, and Caroline is in the MFA program at the University of Mississippi. Caroline and Alice were nominated for an NAACP Image Award for their children’s book, The Diary of B. B. Bright Possible Princess. 1:45-2:15 and again at 2:30-3:00 in the North Tent
Larry Williamson - Legend of the Tallasee Carbine (historical fiction) Larry is a retired football and track coach who taught math in high school for 36 years. An Auburn engineering graduate, he teaches the Writing Your Novel Workshop and Writing Humor Workshop for the Outreach Program at Auburn University. He is the author of an award-winning novel about the Creek Indian War of 1813-14, Tallapoosa, and his latest novel is Legend of the Tallassee Carbine.
10:00-10:30 in Moulton House
Margaret Wrinkle - Wash (fiction) Margaret, born and raised in Birmingham, AL, is a writer, filmmaker, educator, and visual artist. Her award-winning documentary feature, broken\ground, explores contemporary race relations in her historically conflicted hometown and was featured on NRP's Morning Edition and won the Council on Foundations' Film Festival. She graduated from Yale University and the University of Alabama, Birmingham. She taught at the San Francisco Art Institute and lives in rural New Mexico. Wash is her debut novel. 11:30-12:00 in the South Tent
See who's presented at past Festivals.
