Our cast of presenters for the 2012 Alabama Book Festival included:
Click on the blue names for more information about the authors and their books and here for the Author Schedule.
Stacy Hawkins Adams (fiction) was a journalist for 14 years and is now an award-winning author, columnist, and speaker whose body of work highlights social issues, themes of personal growth, and matters of faith. She promotes child advocacy, writes a web-based inspirational column for teens at www.SusieMag.com, and serves as the parenting columnist for the Richmond Times-Dispatch in Virginia. Her latest novel, Coming Home, is partially set in Alabama. 1:00-1:30 in Venue F, South Tent
Peggy Vonsherie Allen (memoir) 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 near Atlanta and works in engineering. Her compelling memoir of growing up in the segregated south, The Pecan Orchard: Journey of a Sharecropper's Daughter, is her second book. 4:00-4:30 in Venue E, Church
Marlin Barton (fiction) is an award-winning author from the Black Belt region of Alabama. His stories have appeared in a variety of journals and anthologies, including Shenandoah, the Southern Review, the Virginia Quarterly Review, and The Best American Short Stories. He teaches in and helps direct the Writing Our Stories project, a program for juvenile offenders in Alabama. He also teaches in the low-residency MFA program at Converse College. His latest novel is The Cross Garden. 10:00-10:30 in Venue D, Log Cabin
Hester Bass (children's) is a former actress and singing telegram messenger Her latest book, The Secret World of Walter Anderson (illustrated by E. B. Lewis), a picture book biography, received the NCTE Orbis Pictus Award and the SIBA Book Award and was chosen as an NCSS Notable Social Studies Book as well as a Best Book of the Year by Bank Street College of Education, and a CCBC Choice. Kirkus Reviews called it, “A gorgeous chronicle of a versatile southern American artist.” 11:30-noon in Venue A, North Tent
Maiben Beard is the Outreach Associate at the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts &
Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts at Auburn University. She is also the moderator for the Cookbook
Panel that features authors Cecil McMillan and Donald Goodman. 10:45-11:30 in Venue D, Log Cabin
Quebe Merritt Bradford (young adult fiction) writes teen fiction and teaches English to high school students was the Montgomery Public Schools 2012 Teacher of the Year for middle and high schools. She is making a comparative study of college readiness programs in Alabama and Australia. Her novel, In the Absence of My Father, was a Montgomery City-County Public Library 2011 Read into the Holidays book selection. 10:45-11:15 in Venue A, North Tent
Brundige Historical Society's We Piddle Around Theater will perform excerpts from Come Home, It's Suppertime, which is Alabama's Official Folk Life Play and recipient of the 2008 Governor's Tourism Award. The stories told in the play are 100 percent true and performed as told by real-life characters who milled around Brundige during the days of the Great Depression and strowed around stories that have endured with time. 10-45-11:30 in Venue E, Church
Chip Cooper (history / travel / photography) was Director of Photography for the University of Alabama for 33 years and is now an instructor at the University and an artist-in-residence in the Honors College. He has shown his work nationally and internationally, it is in many museums and private and corporate collections. He recently had a photography exhibit in Havana, Cuba, and one in Alabama with Cuban photographer. His latest book is Old Havana: Spirit of the Living City. 10:45-11:15 in Venue B, Moulton House
Priscilla Hancock Cooper is the teaching writer for the Writing Our Stories program sponsored by the Department of Youth Services and the Alabama Writers’ Forum. A writer, educator, and consultant, she has worked with arts, education, and cultural institutions throughout the Southeast. Her one-woman show Call Me Black Woman toured on college campuses throughout the country and was produced with a full cast at Red Mountain Theatre Company (RMTC). Summerfest Musical Theatre (now RMTC) produced her play Back to the Dream. Her work has also appeared in the anthologies The Dark Woods I Cross, Black Alabama, and The Storytellers, and the textbook Teaching Zora Neale Hurston. A two-time ASCA literary fellow, Cooper also serves as Vice President of Institutional Programs at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. 11:30-noon in Venue C, Poetry Tent
Tracy Crow (memoir) was one of the first “Marine moms.” She is the nonfiction editor at Prime Number Magazine and teaches journalism and creative writing at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, FL. Her memoir is Eyes Right: Confessions from a Woman Marine. 11:30-noon in Venue B, Moulton House
Claire Datnow (young adult fiction) grew up in Johannesburg, South Africa, and immigrated to the US with her husband, Dr. Boris Datnow in 1965. She has taught creative writing and history to gifted and talented students in Birmingham and was awarded a Fulbright teacher scholarship to Japan. She has published numerous works of fiction and nonfiction, and the latest book in her Eco Mystery series for tweens, The Adventures of the Sizzling Six: The Living Treasure, includes electronic coding for interactive reading. 1:45-2:45 in Venue B, Moulton House
Paul Devlin (biography) is a writer, teacher, PhD student in English, and member of the National Book Critics Circle. . His many articles and reviews have appeared in Slate, the New York Times Book Review, the Antioch Review, the Root, the Daily Beast, and the San Francisco Chronicle, among others. He is the editor of Rifftide: The Life and Opinions of Papa Jo Jones (as Told to Albert Murray). 1:00-1:30 in Venue D, Log Cabin
Pat Cunningham Devoto (fiction) was born and raised in Florence, AL, and lives in Atlanta and Alabama. She has taught high school history and economics, played tennis, and been a licensed private pilot, and she loves writing, libraries, book clubs, and university writing conferences. Her second book, Out of the Night That Covers Me, won critical and popular attention, and her latest novel is On Tripoli Circle. 1:00-1:30 in Venue E, Church
Foster Dickson (history) is a writer, editor, and teacher in Montgomery, AL, whose works focus mostly on neglected aspects of and connecting young people with Southern culture. He is a recipient of an Arts Teacher Fellowship from the Surdna Foundation and a Writer-in-Service Residency from the Lillian E. Smith Foundation. His latest book is Children of the Changing South: Accounts of the Growing Up During and After Integration. 4:00-4:30 in Venue F, South Tent
Wayne Flynt (historical memoir) has authored or co-authored twelve books, the latest of which is his memoir, Keeping the Faith: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives. An award-winning author, he taught for 40 years at Samford and Auburn universities and has lectured at universities across America, the UK, Europe, China, and India. He was founding general editor of the online Encyclopedia of Alabama, and he is an ardent community activist. 12:15-12:45 in Venue F, South Tent
Don Goodman (cookbook), a native of Tuscaloosa, AL, is the executor of the Eugene Walter Estate and oversees, protects, and promotes Eugene Walter's legacy. He lives in the Washington, D.C., area, where he is collating and cataloging hundreds of boxes of Eugene Walter’s personal papers Plans are underway to reissue as e-books a number of Mr. Walter's publications, which are no longer in print. Goodman is co-editor of The Happy Table of Eugene Walter. 10:45-11:30 in Venue D, Log Cabin
Valerie Gribben (young adult fiction) published her first novel, Fairytale, when she was seventeen. Through college and now in medical school, she has completed two sequels—The Emperor’s Realm and The Three Crowns—in this coming-of-age story, now collected as The Fairytale Trilogy. 12:15-12:45 in Venue B, Moulton House
Vanessa Davis Griggs (fiction) is an author and motivational speaker in Irondale, AL, who adores the power of words, both written and spoken. Her company, Free To Soar, emphasizes taking off limits, inspiring and encouraging others to take flight like an eagle. Griggs’s writing and motivational work has earned awards and recognition. Her latest book is Forever Soul Ties, and The Other Side of Goodness will be out in August 2012. 1:45-2:15 in Venue D, Log Cabin
Mark J. Hainds (nonfiction) grew up as the sixth generation on a small, diversified farm in Missouri. He is a research associate at Auburn University’s School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences and a research coordinator for the Longleaf Alliance, a nonprofit organization working to restore the native longleaf pine ecosystems of the southeastern US. He is a hunter, and his first book is Year of the Pig. 4:00-4:30 in Venue D, Log Cabin
Daniel L. Haulman (history) has worked at the Air Force Historical Research Agency since 1982 and is chief of the Organization History Division. He has authored five books about aviation history, the latest of which is The Tuskegee Airmen: An Illustrated History, 1939-1949, co-authored with Joseph Caver and Jerome Ennels. He has taught at Huntingdon College, Auburn University Montgomery, and Faulkner University. 3:15-3:45 in Venue D, Log Cabin
Homer H. Hickam Jr. has been a writer since 1969 after his return from Vietnam. His second book, Rocket Boys, was a New York Times bestseller and the basis for the movie October Sky. Hickam has written books for several adult and young adult series, including Coalwood, Josh Thurlow, and a new series about a moon colony. His work as an engineer for the U.S. Army Missile Command and NASA have given him insight into spacecraft, astronauts, and space missions,a nd space travel. His latest novel is Crater, the first book in a new series. 10:45-11:15 in Venue F, South Tent
Jennifer Horne (essays) is the author of a collection of poems, Bottle Tree, editor of Working the Dirt: An Anthology of Southern Poets, and co-editor with Wendy Reed of three books, the latest of which is Circling Faith: Southern Women on Spirituality. She has received an Alabama State Council on the Arts Literature Fellowship and has been a Seaside Institute “Escape to Create” artist in residence. She teaches in the University of Alabama Honors College and is poetry book reviews editor for First Draft Reviews Online. 3:15-3:45 in Venue E, Church
Randall Horton (poetry) is an assistant professor of English at the University of New Haven and is a recipient of numerous awards. He is a Cave Canem Fellow, a member of the Affrilachian Poets and a member of The Symphony: The House that Etheridge Built. His latest book is The Lingua Franca of Ninth Street, and he will publish a new poetry collection, Pitch Dark, in fall 2012. An excerpt from his memoir titled Roxbury is forthcoming by Kattywompus Press. 1:45-2:15 in Venue C, Poetry Tent
Lanier Scott Isom is an Alabama author and journalist who is working on her second novel and writes for a variety of publications. She is the co-author, with Lilly Ledbetter, of Grace and Grit: My Fight for Equal Pay and Fairness at Goodyear and Beyond, the story of Lilly’s fight for equal rights in the workplace and how it transformed her life and became a victory for the nation. Lilly won a sex discrimination case against Goodyear but lost it on a technicality in the US Supreme Court. WIth Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg's encouragement, Lilly fought back, becoming the namesake of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act.
1:00-1:30 in Venue B, Moulton House
Rheta Grimsley Johnson (nonfiction) is an award-winning reporter, columnist, and travelogue/memoir writer. A Georgia native, she grew up in Montgomery, AL, and now lives in Mississippi. She has published in the Auburn Plainsman, Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN), and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and with the Scripps Howard News Service and was a finalist for the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for commentary. Her syndicated column appears in about fifty newspapers nationwide, and her latest book is Hank Hung the Moon . . . and Warmed Our Cold, Cold Hearts. 10:00-10:30 in Venue F, South Tent
Suzanne Johnson (fiction -- urban fantasy) writes urban fantasy and paranormal fiction from Auburn, AL, on top of a career in educational publishing that has spanned five states and six universities (including both Alabama and Auburn). She grew up in Winfield, AL, but was also a longtime resident of New Orleans, Her first novel, Royal Street, launches a new Sentinels of New Orleans series, and the second and third books in the series will follow in Fall 2012 and Spring 2013. 10:00-10:30 in Venue E, Church
Christy Jordan’s love of feeding folks good food led her to start a blog, SouthernPlate.com. In its second year, it had over 43 million page views as readers flocked to the site for Jordan’s recipes and stories from her Alabama heritage. She believes that life is good, home cooking is best, and there is always something to be grateful for. Her food is simple, old fashioned, economical, and usually quick and easy—the things that make Southern food what it is, along with the Southerners’ secret ingredient: preparation by someone who loves you. Her first book is Southern Plate: Classic Comfort Food That Makes Everyone Feel Like Family.
1:45-2:15 in Venue F, South Tent
Jo S. Kittinger (children's fiction), the author of 22 fiction and nonfiction books forchildren, feels most at home when surrounded by the natural beauty of nature –whether birdwatching in a swamp or kayaking down her beloved Cahaba River in Alabama. Her latest picture books are The House on Dirty-Third Street and A Breath of Hope. She is a regional advisor the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and organizes conferences for writers and illustrators of children’s literature. 1:00-1:30 in Venue A, North Tent
Dean Mackey is curator of the Online Paper Airplane Museum and designs paper airplanes. Inspired by teaching kids how to maker paper airplanes in 2000, he has researched and gathered over 800 free paper airplanes in his online museum, going all the way back to 1890. He has written several books about paper airplanes, including: Fold and Fly Paper Airplanes, Freaky Flyers: 10 Halloween Paper Airplanes, and Uncle Dean's Benoist Flyers. He will be available throughout the day to help kids of all ages make their own paper airplanes. 10:00-10:30 and 3:15-3:45 in Venue A, North Tent
Edwin Marty is director of the Hampstead Institute in Montgomery, AL. He has worked on sustainable farming projects in Mexico, Mongolia, Australia, and Chile. He also worked for Southern Living magazine as a garden writer while establishing Jones Valley Urban Farm, a nonprofit teaching farm in downtown Birmingham. Marty has also consulted on urban farm projects around the country and is the president of the Alabama Sustainable Agriculture Network board of directors. His book about urban farming in America is Breaking Through Concrete. 12:15-12:45 in Venue D, Log Cabin
Alisa McLeod is a field service librarian with the Alabama Public Library Service. She worked for Orange Beach Public Library and the Thomas B. Norton Public Library in Gulf Shores, AL. While she was there, the Orange Beach library became one of the first in the country to provide patrons with access to a digital collection. At the APLS, she continues to share her experience and knowledge about the growing and evolving needs of digital formats in the public libraries. She is the moderator for the e-Reading Panel, featuring authors Claire Datnow and A.J. Scudiere and NewSouth Books.
1:45-2:45 in Venue B, Moulton House
Cecil McMillan (cookbook) was owned the Blue Moon Cafe, a landmark restaurant in Montgomer for many years. It was the place to go for dinner parties, teas, luncheons, and any kind of celebration. The Blue Moon closed in the late 1970s, but many of the restaurant's recipes are immortalized in McMillan's cookbook, The Blue Moon Revisited,which is in its 10th and final printing.
10:45-11:15 in Venue D, Log Cabin
Lisa Patton (fiction) is a writer, event speaker, tour guide, mother, and animal lover—not necessarily in that order. She wrote Whistlin’ Dixie in a Nor’easter after moving back south from living in Vermont, and she plans two more books in the Whistlin’ Dixie series. Her latest book is Yankee Doodle Dixie. Patton grew up in Memphis and lives in Franklin, TN, where she is a walking tour guide. 12:15-12:45 in Venue E, Church
Gin Phillips (fiction) won the Barnes & Noble Discover Award for her first novel, The Well and the Mine, which has been released in the UK, Germany, Italy, Brazil, Korea, and Taiwan. Her new novel, Come in and Cover Me, came out in January 2012, has been reviewed in the Washington Post, Elle, Parade, and Oprah.com. She lives in Birmingham with her husband, her kids, and a schnoodle.
3:15-3:45 in Venue F, South Tent
Taylor M. Polites (historical fiction) lives in Providence, RI, with his small Chihuahua, Clovis. He has lived in Provincetown, Massachusetts, New York City, St. Louis and the Deep South. He graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a BA in History and French and spent a year studying in Caen, France. He has covered arts and news for a variety of local newspapers and magazines, including the Cape Codder, InNewsWeekly, Bird’s Eye View, artscope Magazine and Provincetown Arts Magazine. His first novel is The Rebel Wife. 1:45-2:15 in Venue E, Church
Calvin Alexander Ramsey (children's fiction) is a playwright, photographer, and painter. He adapted one of his plays for print as Ruth and the Green Book, illustrated by Floyd Cooper. His latest book is Belle, the Last Mule at Gee’s Bend: A Civil Rights Story. Ramsey lives in Atlanta, GA.
1:45-2:15 in Venue A, North Tent
Alice Randall (fiction) is the author of The Wind Done Gone, Pushkin and the Queen of Spades, Rebel Yell, and Ada's Rules. She is a Harvard educated African-American novelist who lives in Nashville and writes country songs. Randall has emerged as an innovative food activist committed to reforms that support healthy bodies and healthy communities. She'll be talking about her new novel, African American cookbooks, and Southern food, and she'll be shaking up the audience with zumba and hoola hoops.
11:30-noon and 2:30-3:00 in Venue F, South Tent
Wendy Reed (essays) is co-editor with Jennifer Horne of Circling Faith: Southern Women on Spirituality and three other collections. Reed’s Accidental Memoir: How I Killed Someone and Other Stories will be out with NewSouth this fall. She has received two Emmy Awards and fellowships from the State Council on the Arts and the Seaside Institute. She lives in Waverly, AL, where she is acclimating well, thanks in part to the goats next door. 3:15-3:45 in Venue E, Church
A. J. Scudiere (fiction - suspense) sees the world as strange place where patterns jump out and catch the eye, very little is missed, and most of it can be recalled with a deep breath—a place the rest of use can see when we read. She has two science degrees and has garnered national recognition as a teacher, trainer, and curriculum writer. She lives near Nashville, TN, having lived in Florida, Los Angeles, and a handful of other places. Her latest thriller is God’s Eye.
1:45-2:45 and 3:15-3:45 in Venue B, Moulton House
Solomon Seay, Jr. began practicing law in the 1950s in Montgomery, AL, as one of seven black lawyers in the state and was key in attacking Jim Crow segregation. He grew up as the son of a schoolteacher mother and a father who mentored Martin Luther King, Jr. and Seay’s eventual law partner, civil rights law icon Fred D. Gray. The festival’s first ever Student Readers Group will discuss Seay’s memoir, Jim Crow and Me: Stories from My Life as a Civil Rights Lawyer, with the author. 9:00-9:45 in Venue A, South Tent
Abraham Smith (poetry) hails from Ladysmith, WI, and Tuscaloosa, AL. His most recent book of poems is Hank, and he has published poems in the American Poetry Review, Fence, and jubilat, among others. He was a 2004-2005 Writing Fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, MA, and is a 2012 ASCA Literary Fellow. Smith summers on his family’s sheep dairy farm, where he wears four hats: writer-in-residence, farmhand, babysitter, and Farmall tractor enthusiast. 2:30-3:00 in Venue C, Poetry Tent
Jeanie Thompson (poetry) is the author of several poetry collections, the latest of which is The Seasons Bear Us. An award-winning author, she has directed the Alabama Writers' Forum, a statewide literary arts organization in Montgomery. She also teaches part-time in the Spalding University Brief Residency MFA Writing Program in Louisville, KY, and she is completing a book length persona poem sequence about the adult life of Alabama author and activist Helen Keller. 10:45-11:15 in Venue C, Poetry Tent
Adam Vines (poetry) is an assistant professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and editor of Birmingham Poetry Review. His first collection of poetry is The Coal Life. He has published, or has poems forthcoming, in Post Road, 32 Poems, Poetry, The Literary Review, and Redivider, among others.
1:00-1:30 in Venue C, Poetry Tent
Katie Wainwright (fiction), a teacher and newspaper columnist, was born in Cuba, and her mother, Angela Martinez, is Cuban. With five children and work, writing was the hobby that helped maintain her sanity. She has published columns and articles in the Hammond Daily Star, the Hammond Sun, Solar Today, Inside Northside, the Christian Science Monitor, and the Chicago Tribune. Her first novel is Cuba on My Mind. 10:00-10:30 in Venue B, Moulton House
Frank X Walker (poetry) is a native Kentuckian and a multidisciplinary artist who has lectured, conducted workshops, read poetry and exhibited at over 300 national conferences and universities in the US, Northern Ireland, and Cuba and teaches at the University of Kentucky. He is a founding member of the Affrilachian Poets, the first Kentucky writer to be featured on NPR’s This I Believe, and the author of five poetry collections. His visual art is in the private collections of Spike Lee, Opal Palmer Adisa, Morris FX Jeff, and Bill and Camille Cosby. His latest collection is Isaac Murphy: I Dedicate This Ride.
12:15-12:45 in Venue C, Poetry Tent
Anne Cope Wallace (poetry) is an award-winning Alabama poet and freelance writer. A teacher and psychologist, she wrote Setting Psychological Boundaries: A Handbook for Women. The latest poetry collection from this Allen Ginsburg award winner is Songs of the Burning Barrow.
10:00-10:30 in Venue C, Poetry Tent
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Patti White (poetry) teaches creative writing at The University of Alabama and is director of Slash Pine Press, which publishes limited-edition chapbooks, plans and hosts community arts events, and sponsors undergraduate student creative exchanges. Her latest poetry collection is Yellow Jackets; she will publish a new collection, Chain Link Fence, in 2013, and she is working on a novel set in Cripple Creek, Colorado.
3:15-3:45 in Venue C, Poetry Tent
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