I'll be in Fairhope for the weekend. If you're around, or have friends who are, y'all come on out for the events.
ksz

Literary slugfest’ to feature new and established writers


By Curt Chapman

FAIRHOPE, Ala. — The eighth annual Southern Writers Reading, which writer Sonny Brewer long ago dubbed the area’s “literary slugfest,” will be held the weekend before Thanksgiving, with live music and special guests at the Fairhope Public Library.

Doug Crandell
Joe Formichella, author of Here’s To You, Jackie Robinson and The Wreck of the Twilight Limited as well as an event organizer, said, “It’s gotten a good response every time we’ve done it. This one is more low key than in the past. It’s designed for writers with little notoriety to get some exposure for them.”

Things begin Nov. 16 at 6 p.m., with opening remarks by Pulitzer Prize-winner Rick Bragg and Darren Wang of National Public Radio’s “The Spoken Word.” The two will also wrap up the event two days later.

Later that Friday, the Ole Miss Graduate Student Writing Contest winners will be recognized, followed by a book-to-film panel moderated by Don Noble, host of “Bookmark” on Alabama Public Television.

The finale of the evening will feature the “Alumni Grille,” who will entertain with a panel that includes Tommy Franklin, Beth Ann Fennelly and Joshlyn Jackson, along with other veterans of the conference.

“The ‘Alumni Grille’ is anyone who has been in the main show in previous years,” Formichella said. “They are invited to come. We never know who is going to show up. Year in and year out, we get a half-dozen writers who come back.”

The literary extravaganza continues Nov. 17 at 1 p.m. with a photography presentation by Maude Schuylar Clay, followed by readings featuring Doug Crandell and Karen Spears Zacharias. Formichella said there will then be an intermission after which writers Pia Ehrhardt, Karen Abbot and Theodore Pitsios will take the platform.

Ehrhardt is from New Orleans and writes short stories, Formichella said, while Abbott is a freelance journalist who has turned to nonfiction.

Karen Abbott
Finally, on Nov. 18, from 1-4 p.m., some of the authors will gather at Page and Palette, 32 S. Section St., where they will chat with each other and the public, along with signing books as a part of Fairhope’s Holiday Open House.

“We’re doing a couple of different things,” he noted. “All of the readings are going to be at the Fairhope Public Library, which is a great venue. All events are free this year. The Fairhope Center for the Writing Arts has taken full management of the event.”

Formichella said Southern Writers Reading began in 1999 with William Gay, Tom Franklin and Frank Turner Hollon when Brewer, then owner of Over the Transom Bookstore on De La Mare Avenue, got the idea to showcase new and promising Southern writers.

“Our only guidelines are — and they’re sometimes not strictly adhered to (Zacharias lives in the Northwest) — they must have written two books or less, and be from the South or have written about the South,” he said.

Formichella pointed out that Southern Writers Reading was the incubator for the popular Stories from the Blue Moon Café series of short story anthologies.

He said, “David Poindexter (MacAdam/Cage publisher) was in the crowd, and said, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to put together a little chapbook?’” With that, his company rolled the first Blue Moon book off the press. The series is currently on hiatus.

Southern Writers Reading is sponsored by the Fairhope Center for the Writing Arts. Although admission to all events is free, contributions to the center are welcome.

For more information call Formichella at (251) 895-5921.