Nine New Author Profiles on This Goodly Land

This Goodly Land: Alabama's Literary Landscape has just added nine new Alabama author profiles to its Web site. Like our earlier profiles, these include biographical information about the authors, information about their work, and places where interested readers can go to find out more.

Our latest additions are New Journalist Gay Talese, travel writer and Nineteenth Century journalist Anne Royall, Social Realism novelist Rebecca Harding Davis, librarian and Harlem Renaissance figure Arna Bontemps, and writers of books for children and young adults John Green, Peter Huggins, Margaret Zehmer Searcy, Emma Gelders Sterne, and Deborah Wiles.

Midge Coates, Project Manager
This Goodly Land: Alabama's Literary Landscape

Video: "Where Are You From?"

Back in the fall of 2006, when we were getting This Goodly Land ready for public launch, we knew that we would have to address the issue of what constitutes an "Alabama author." We saw and liked an essay written by Todd Keith, then editor of PORTICO Magazine, on what it means to be a Birmingham writer. We asked Todd if he would adapt this to Alabama writers as a whole, and he agreed. "Literary Alabama: Is There Such a Thing As an 'Alabama Writer'?" has been on our site from the beginning.

This past spring, we asked local author and Auburn University English instructor Peter Huggins to make a video with us and say something about his relationship with Alabama. Fortunately for us, Peter had recently published an essay on the meaning of place in literature, and he adapted it for our purpose. The resulting video, "Where Are You From?", is now on our Web site and available for viewing.

Midge Coates, Project Manager
This Goodly Land: Alabama's Literary Landscape