Literary Friday

Mississippi Booksignings Recap

Many of you may have seen our posts and tweets from Mississippi earlier this week, where we followed author Kimberly Brock and Anna Kline And The Grits And Soul Band from Jackson to Greenwood. We were thrilled to meet Kimberly in person (she’s pictured with Editor Erin Z. Bass) and hear her tell her “River Witch” story at Lemuria Books and TurnRow Book Co. She also shared how she and the band came to be traveling together – she heard their song “Flood Waters” and thought it perfectly embodied the themes of her book – and how pumpkins came to play such an important role in her story – a news report she saw on pumpkin boat racing.

We also got to meet one of our favorite readers and bloggers, Tamara Welch, who made the trip to Greenwood for the signing.  It was so much fun talking books with her while browsing the shelves at TurnRow. It was also refreshing to see two of the South’s independent bookstores promoting Southern literature (each have special sections for the category) and providing cozy reading spaces for locals and visitors. Get a look inside TurnRow here, and read our post and see video from the Lemuria event here. More photos can be found on our Facebook page.

Greenwood is also where “The Help” movie did a lot of its filming, so stay tuned for future stories about the town’s tour of filming locations and why The Alluvian Hotel there is the perfect getaway.

Announcing the “If Jack’s In Love” Winners …

Jill W. and Conrad Deitrick are both getting copies of the book by Stephen Wetta.

Literary News & Blogs 

While in Mississippi, we learned that James Franco’s movie version of Faulkner’s “As I Lay Dying” is set to start filming in Canton next month. There have already been a few casting calls, and Franco himself will be producing, directing and acting. Lee Caplin, manager of the Faulkner estate, is co-producer, and other stars are rumored to include Joaquin Phoenix, Michael Shannon and Paul Dano. We’ll be watching the progress and hope to get over there for some of the filming.

In other movie news, the trailer for “Lawless,” based on the book “The Wettest County in the World” by Matt Bondurant, is out. About a bootlegging gang in Depression-era Virginia, the film stars Shia LaBeouf, Jessica Chastain, Gary Oldman, Guy Pearce and Tom Hardy. Release date is August 29.

Shark Week on The Discovery Channel has come to a close, but its list of the Top 25 Shark Moments in Literary and Pop Culture remains.

BookRiot’s 3 Books I’m Ashamed to Have Abandoned includes one by Faulkner.

Playbill.com announced that Tony Award-winner Rob Ashford will direct a Broadway revival of  Tennessee Williams’ “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.” Scarlett Johansson is rumored to be starring as Maggie, with Chris Pine or Jeremy Renner to play Brick. Rehearsals are expected to begin in November.

“To Kill A Mockingbird” made NPR’s list of the 100 Best-Ever Teen Novels, falling third after Harry Potter and “The Hunger Games” but beating the Twilight series. We doubt Atticus Finch would have approved of vampires.

(Non)Required Reading

BookRiot’s weekly roundup of the best bookish lists on the Internet.

The Rumpus’s list of writers of color, challenging readers to pick five they’re not familiar with and read them.

Stories from the third-annual Tennessee Antiquarian Book Fair from Humanities Tennessee.

Literary Events

The Decatur Book Festival will take place in and around the Decatur, Georgia, square August 31-September 2, presenting authors Mary Kay Andrews, Meg Cabot, Mark Childress, John T. Edge, Joshilyn Jackson, Karen White and many more.

The 11th annual Tennessee Williams Tribute and Tour of Victorian Homes will be held in Columbus, Mississippi, September 4-9. Special guests include Dr. Kenneth Holditch and Tony Award nominees Alison Fraser and Allison Leyton Brown, in addition to a performance of “The Rose Tattoo” and a Stella Shouting Contest. See the ad on the top right for more info.

Athens, Alabama, holds its first Kudzu Chronicles Southern Writers Event at Art on the Square September 7-8, giving residents access to authors and panel discussions with writers.

Birmingham Public Library’s Eat Drink Read Write Festival will be held September 8-15, a series of free programs bringing food, culinary arts and literature to the table.

Scheduled for October 12-14, the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville announced its lineup last week, which includes Gillian Flynn, Lauren Groff, Kimberly Brock, Lydia Netzer, Ron Rash and Bobbie Ann Mason.

The Louisiana Book Festival will be held October 27 in Baton Rouge at the State Capitol. This festival hasn’t announced their lineup yet, but we’ve heard Cory MacLauchlin, Rick Bragg, Ron Rash and Wiley Cash will be there.

A Flannery O’Connor Symposium, co-sponsored by Deep South, is scheduled for November 9-10 in Lafayette, Louisiana, on the UL Lafayette campus. We’ll be releasing more details as it gets closer to the event.

Also that weekend is the Georgia Literary Festival at the new Jekyll Island Convention Center, which will include Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey, Chef Hugh Acheson, Mary Kay Andrews and Steve Berry.

New in Southern Voice

Middle of Nowhere, a story about grief and healing at a roadside gas station by Floridian Carol D. O’Dell.

See the Literary Friday Pinterest board here, and download the Deep South Literary Trail App here!