As our state celebrates its bicentennial year, Southern Voices honors the contributions of those individuals whose writing and work has brought acclaim to Alabama.
Authors Conference
Saturday, Feb. 23 - 9:00 am - 4:00 pm - The Library Theatre & The Library Plaza- Book sales and signings will follow the afternoon session. - Lunch on your own
Thank you for your support of Southern Voices and for your purchase of a ticket to Saturday’s Authors Conference. We wanted to make you aware as soon as possible that Rick Bragg will not be able to join us due to complications with an ongoing illness. We wish Mr. Bragg well and hope that he makes a speedy recovery.
We hope that you still plan to join us on Saturday to hear from the remaining talented authors presenting at the Authors Conference. We have added Sean Dietrich to the lineup. Sean is the host of the Sean of the South podcast as well as the author of several books, including Whistling Dixie, Lyla and the upcoming Stars of Alabama. If you choose to not attend the event and would like a refund or would like to donate your ticket back to the Library, please contact the Library Theatre Box Office at 444-7888.
Patti Callahan Henry
Growing up in Philadelphia as the daughter of a Presbyterian minister, Patti Callahan Henry learned early the value of storytelling, a lesson which has served her well as The New York Times best-selling author of 13 novels. Her contemporary Southern fiction novels centering on women navigating family life and romantic relationships have won her much praise over the years. She has been a finalist in the Townsend Prize for Fiction, an Indie Next Pick, an OKRA pick and a multiple nominee for the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) Novel of the Year. Her newest novel, Becoming Mrs. Lewis, is her first foray into historical fiction, telling the story of the friendship and love between Joy Davidman and C. S. Lewis, which Library Journal called “a magical and literary experience that won't be soon forgotten.” Patti currently resides in Birmingham, Alabama.
An Evening With Bryan Stevenson
Bryan Stevenson is the founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama. Under his leadership, the EJI has won major legal challenges eliminating excessive and unfair sentencing, exonerating innocent death row prisoners, confronting abuse of the incarcerated and the mentally ill and aiding children prosecuted as adults. He is a graduate of the Harvard Law School. His book, Just Mercy is an award winning New York Times best seller that tells the story of the EJI, the people they represent and the importance of confronting injustice. Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Desmond Tutu states that Just Mercy is “as gripping to read as any legal thriller and what hangs in the balance is nothing less than the soul of a great nation.” The movie Just Mercy starring Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx is set to release in 2020.
Friday, Feb. 22 at 7pm - $40 • The Library Theatre - Book signing and reception to follow. BryanStevenson.com
Melanie Benjamin
Melanie Benjamin is The New York Times best-selling author of The Swans of Fifth Avenue, The Aviator's Wife and The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb. Before turning her focus to historical fiction, she published short stories in the In Posse Review and The Adirondack Review, as well as two contemporary novels under her real name, Melanie Hauser. Her first historical fiction novel, Alice I Have Been, was inspired by the life of Alice Hargreaves Liddell, the real-life Alice in Wonderland. In her latest historical novel, The Girls in the Picture, Publishers Weekly praised her portrayal of the “loving but competitive friendship” between Golden Age screenwriter Frances Marion and superstar Mary Pickford, “women on the rise in a man’s world.”
Melanie's Website
Melanie on Facebook
Melanie on Twitter
Melanie on Instagram
J. T. Ellison
A graduate of Randolph-Macon Women’s College, J. T. Ellison is a former presidential appointee who worked in the White House and the Department of Commerce before moving to the private sector to work as a financial analyst and marketing director. She is now a New York Times and USA Today best-selling author who writes stand-alone domestic noir, psychological thriller series and the international thriller series A Brit in the FBI with The New York Times best-selling author Catherine Coulter. In 2015, she was named cohost of the Emmy Award-winning literary television show A Word on Words. Her latest novel, Tear Me Apart, received a starred review from Publishers Weekly who called it “outstanding” and stated that she is “at the top of her game.” Ellison lives in Nashville with her husband and twin kittens.
Roger Johns
Roger Johns is a former corporate lawyer, retired college professor and the author of the Wallace Hartman Mysteries Dark River Rising and River of Secrets. During his nearly two decades as a professor, he served on the editorial staffs of several academic publications and won numerous awards and recognitions for his teaching and scholarly writing. He is the 2018 Georgia Detective/Mystery Author of the Year, a 2018 Killer Nashville Readers’ Choice Award nominee and a finalist for the 2018 Silver Falchion Award for best police procedural. Roger, along with four other crime fiction writers, also co-authors the MurderBooks blog at www.murder-books.com.
David Joy
David Joy's novels tell the stories of the men and women whose lives are tied to this land and its history. He is the author of the Edgar finalist novel Where All Light Tends to Go, as well as the novels The Weight of This World and The Line That Held Us. His stories and essays have appeared in Time, The New York Times Magazine, Garden & Gun and The Bitter Southerner and have been nominated for awards such as the Pushcart Prize. Author Wiley Cash says “No one writes about the issues facing rural America as clearly, as fairly or as well as David Joy.” David Joy lives in North Carolina.
Gin Phillips
Born in Montgomery, Gin Phillips graduated from Birmingham-Southern College with a degree in political journalism. With the success of her first novel, The Well and the Mine, winner of the 2009 Barnes & Noble Discover Award, Gin was able to transition from her day job as a freelance magazine journalist into writing fiction fulltime. Her latest novel, Fierce Kingdom, was one of the most critically acclaimed novels of 2017, earning praise for its page-turning plot while also highlighting the daily stresses of parenthood through a terrifying scenario.
Lori Roy
Kirkus Reviews calls Lori Roy’s latest novel, The Disappearing, a “twisted Southern gothic winner” that “oozes with atmosphere.” Set in an isolated Florida town, Lane Fielding must come to terms with the crimes of her father, the former director of an infamous boys’ school, while dealing with the disappearance of one her daughters. Lori is a two-time Edgar Award winner for her novels Bent Road and Let Me Die In His Footsteps. Her novel Until She Comes Home was an Edgar Finalist. Her work has been twice named a New York Times Notable Crime Book, included on various best of lists and summer reading lists and named an Editors’ Choice by The New York Times. Lori lives with her family in west central Florida.
Recording:
Sean Deitrich
Sean Dietrich is a columnist, and novelist, known for his commentary on life in the American South. His work has appeared in Southern Living, Good Grit, The Tallahassee Democrat, South Magazine, Yellowhammer News, The Bitter Southerner, Thom Magazine, The Mobile Press Register, and he has authored ten books.
A mediocre sailor and fisherman, a biscuit connoisseur, and barbecue competition judge, when he’s not writing, he spends much of his time aboard his fourteen-foot fishing boat (The S.S. Squirrel), along with his coonhound, Thelma Lou.
TICKET SALES...
TICKETS GO ON SALE Friday, Jan. 4 From 8am - 10am online & phone sales only.
Please purchase your tickets early, as we expect to sell out during this time. If any tickets remain, they will also be available during regular Box Office hours. M-F, 10am - 6pm