In a recent article that ran in the Samson Independent in Clinton, N. C., Julie Williams, author of the newly released Wings of Opportunity: The Wright Brothers in Montgomery, Alabama, 1910 remembers her tenure there as a very young journalist, when she honed her reporting skills and learned to appreciate the importance of home-town journalism …
The Alabama Department of Archives and History honored its highest-ranking female employee, reference department head and black history and genealogy specialist Frazine Taylor, with a retirement party attended by some 100 people on Monday, February 1. The Montgomery Advertiser covered the event and interviewed admiring colleagues including ADAH director Dr. Ed Bridges, who praised her professionalism and observed, “Frazine’s become a national leader in the field” …
Alabama readers will dive into The Adventures of Tom Sawyer after the kickoff of the Big Read program held yesterday, February 2, on the steps of the State House in Montgomery, Alabama. Lt. Governor Jim Folsom began the initiative by reading the first page of Mark Twain’s classic novel, surrounded by legislative representatives and librarians. Sponsored by the state libraries of Alabama, the event inaugurated Alabama’s first ever Big Read program, highlighted by the publication of a special edition of Tom Sawyer produced by NewSouth Books …
David Rigsbee, whose book The Red Tower: New and Selected Poems will be published by NewSouth in September 2010, will receive the Sam Ragan Award for Distinguished Service to North Carolina Arts Thursday, February 4 at St. Andrews College in Laurinburg, North Carolina …
Bay of Pigs veteran Joe Shannon of Birmingham, who died on January 5, was rememberd in an Associated Press article carried by the Montgomery Advertiser and MSNBC.com. According to the story, Shannon was “one of the few surviving American pilots who participated in the failed invasion of Cuba in 1961” …
Lift off is what planes do, but Julie Williams, author of Wings of Opportunity: The Wright Brothers in Montgomery, Alabama, 1901, newly published by NewSouth Books, says she is flying sky high thanks to recent articles by Jay Reeves at the Associated Press and Dana Beyerle of the New York Times Regional Media Group respectively. Their stories on her new book have been picked up by literally dozens of papers in the last few days, ranging from the Charlotte Observer to the Zanesville Times Recorder, the Rocky Mountain Telegram, to the USA Today online edition …
Patrons of the We Piddle Around Theater in Brundidge, Alabama will get a special Christmas treat this year when renowned author Kathryn Tucker Windham regales them with her delightful holiday tales during storytelling concerts on December 4 and 5. The event, sponsored by the Brundidge Historical Society, includes a chili dinner. Local paper Troy Messenger has details …
There are two things Georgia Author of the Year award-winner Ted Dunagan enjoys almost as much as writing. The first is presenting about his book, A Yellow Watermelon, to an interested audience, especially school children. The second is Southern cooking, especially when the menu includes corn bread and collard greens. He got a big helping of both on his recent visit to Savannah, Georgia, in connection with the Savannah Book Festival …
Anna Olswanger, author of Shlemiel Crooks, is involved in the Jewish book world as both an author and literary agent. Her twin lives intersect in a website she developed, called Host-a-Jewish-Author.com, which was recently acquired by the Center for Jewish Culture and Creativity. It’s a move that Olswanger says will allow her site and the CJCC to “combine the proverbial strength with strength” …
Wade Hall has been busy, very busy. Author of Conecuh People, a moving collection of oral histories from rural Alabama published by NewSouth Books, Dr. Hall performed an excerpt from his one-man play, One Man’s Lincoln, at the Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship in Montgomery, Alabama on November 6. Hall was honored to have an excerpt from this same play included in the production Our Lincoln staged at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. last February. The production is now available on DVD from the Kentucky Arts Council …