Historian Joseph Caver pays tribute to Tuskegee Airman Charles McGee
Charles McGee, one of the famed Tuskegee Airmen, passed away on Sunday, January 16th at age 102. According to the Washington Post, when the all-Black flying unit was formed during World War II, “some officers questioned whether African Americans had the skill, intelligence and courage to become military pilots”. McGee and his fellow pilots proved […]
NewSouth author Richard Bailey honors African American heroes Horace King and Lillie Mae Bradford
Richard Bailey, author of Neither Carpetbaggers Nor Scalawags: Black Officeholders During the Reconstruction of Alabama 1867-1878, honored the legacies of two influential African Americans recently …
Steve Flowers given Medallion Award by National Association of Secretaries of State
Alabama Secretary of State John H. Merrill honored noted political commentator Steve Flowers with an award from the National Associations of Secretaries of State for Flowers’s work as a legislator and political columnist. The award recognizes people who have “contributed extensively to the elections process” …
Carson McCullers turns 100. Poet Sue Brannan Walker gets busy.
2017 is already proving to be a busier year than most for Alabama Poet Laureate Emeritus Sue Brannan Walker. January saw the publication of her imaginative long-form poem It’s Good Weather for Fudge: Conversing with Carson McCullers, with an introduction by McCullers scholar Carlos Dews, released to commemorate the 100th anniversary of McCullers’s birth on February 19 …
American Happiness named award finalist; author Jacqueline Trimble featured in Cave Canem blog post
American Happiness has been selected as a finalist in the Seven Sisters Book Awards, which recognize talented female authors in seven categories. President Lynn Hinton notes that the awards celebrate the stories of women and the women who write them, and says she is excited about this second year of the awards program …
Who tells your story? Frye Gaillard talks about the role of historian for the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA)
In an interview with SIBA’s Lady Banks’ Commonplace Book newsletter, author Frye Gaillard talks about the craft of historical novelist. Gaillard’s new book for young readers, Go South to Freedom, relates an “as told to” slavery story, shared with him by an elderly neighbor …
NewSouth Books celebrates seven years of partnership with the Osher Institute for Lifelong Learning at Auburn University
NewSouth Books has enjoyed working the Osher Institute for Lifelong Learning in a partnership that has continued for seven years. OLLI is a program for learning in retirement for adults 50 and older. Members can choose from offerings that include academic courses as well as recreational and health activities …
William Heath wins Western Writers of America Spur Award
William Heath (The Children Bob Moses Led) is the winner of the Spur Award for Best Western Historical Nonfiction for his new book William Wells and and the Struggle for the Old Northwest. The Spur Awards are given by the Western Writers of America. Heath’s is the first biography of William Well, a frontiersman born to Anglo parents and captured and raised by Miami Indians …
Faye Gibbons celebrates literary legacy of Sue Pickett
One NewSouth author pays homage to another in the current issue of Alabama Heritage magazine. Faye Gibbons, author of the young adult novel Halley, penned a beautiful appreciation of Suzanne Pickett, whose memoir The Path Was Steep: A Memoir of Appalachian Coal Camps During the Great Depression was rereleased by NewSouth Books in 2013 …
John Pritchard named Mississippi “Legend”
John Pritchard, author of the Junior Ray series, was amused to see himself listed as a “legend” among Mississippi authors on the website for the Mississippi Arts and Entertainment Experience, a cultural center set to open in 2017. He noted, “There are some, in fact, who might insist that I have always been entirely fictitious!” …