Literary Friday, Edition 70
Atlanta writer by way of London Lee Howard takes us on a tour of sites related to some famous rural Georgia authors this week. He travels to Andalusia, the home and farm of Flannery O’Connor in Milledgeville, and Eatonton, where both Alice Walker and Joel Chandler Harris got their start. Along the way, Howard shares the connections between these writers and gives suggestions for a good meal that’s not hard to find. Read his story From Place to Page here, and view a gallery of sites on the tour here.
Literary News & Blogs
Mississippi native Donna Tartt’s “The Goldfinch” is included in Bookish’s Best Books for Fall 2013. After waiting more than a decade for a new novel, her fans will be rewarded in October.
As school starts back up, Flavorwire has The 50 Greatest Campus Novels Ever Written. Speaking of Donna Tartt, can you guess which cult classic of hers is included in the list?
A Midcentury Map Celebrating American Folklore created by artist William Gropper recently made the rounds on Twitter. Gators, trains, foxes and of course pirates mark the Southern territories.
Get that literary iPhone case you’ve been looking for from Out of Print, which just released its book-inspired collection. We like the Poe-ka Dots one, but there’s also Pop Poe and The Great Gatsby. Cases are $25, and a book is donated to a community in need for each one purchased.
New magazine The Bitter Southerner launched this week, pledging to share one great story from the South every week.
Included in The Huffington Post‘s slideshow of Fall’s Hottest Biographies are those on Jim Henson and Johnny Cash.
As we await our copy of “Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives,” The HuffPo also has an excerpt from the book that explains why female crime writers like Gillian Flynn and Attica Locke are so important to the genre.
Literary Events
A Huey P. Long birthday celebration and lookalike contest are planned for this afternoon at Kingfish restaurant in New Orleans. The second line parade starts at 4:30 p.m., and participants are encouraged to wear seersucker or white linen one last time before Labor Day. Ramos Gin Fizz cocktails will be served, along with tastes from the restaurant menu.
The Road to Tara Museum in Jonesboro, Georgia, opens its expanded Civil War exhibit in time for the holiday weekend today.
The AJC Decatur Book Festival starts today and runs through September 1, in Decatur Georgia. This year’s special guests include Clyde Edgerton, inaugural poet Richard Blanco and some of our summer reading authors like Karen White, Wendy Wax, Claire Cook and Mary Alice Monroe. The festival has also announced a wide range of programming for children and the largest and most diverse LGBT track lineup in the festival’s history. See our guide to the festival here.
The 12th annual Tennessee Williams Tribute and Tour of Victorian Homes will be held September 3-8 in Columbus, Mississippi. This year’s events include “Period of Adjustment” performed at Mississippi University for Women, the Moon Lake Party with Williams’ “Autumn Song,” the Stella Shouting Contest and a booksigning with author Michael Farris Smith of “Rivers” at his Victorian home.
The Southern Festival of Books in Nashville will take place October 11-13 at War Memorial Plaza. This year’s authors include Ace Atkins, Rick Bragg, Wiley Cash, Therese Ann Fowler, Tom Franklin, Ann Hite, Jill McCorkle, Mary Alice Monroe, Susan Rebecca White and many more.
Save the date for the Louisiana Book Festival, scheduled for November 2 in Baton Rouge this year. More details coming soon!
New in Southern Voice
Sanctified, a story about a man trying to find a way up in a world where the only way to get ahead is by illegal means, written by Georgia native Justin Haynes and set in fictional Chandler County, Georgia.
To find out more about Southern authors’ haunts and hangouts, download the Deep South Literary Trail App, available direct from iTunes and for Android.
