2009 Alabama Book Festival

The Alabama Book Festival will take place on April 18, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., on the grounds of historic Old Alabama Town in Montgomery, Ala. The Festival is organized by the Alabama Center for the Book, an affiliate program of the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts at Auburn University.

More than fifty novelists, poets, artists, illustrators, playwrights and children’s writers will participate in the Festival including: Daniel Anderson, Tina McElroy Ansa, Susan Youngblood Ashmore, Rick Bragg, Joel Brouwer, Peter Campion, Guy and Candie Carawan, Sheryll Cashin, Robert Dalby, Melissa Delbridge, Foster Dickson, Kathleen Driskell, Sara DuBose, Lynnell Edwards, Margaret Fenton, Thom Gossom, Wayne Greenhaw, Lauretta Hannon, Andrew Hudgins, Dr. Gloria Joseph, Douglas Kearney, Nanci Kincaid, Thomas Larson, Sebastian Matthews, Erin McGraw, Linda Kenney Miller, Jim Murphy, Don Noble, Martin Olliff, Molly Peacock, Ron Riekki, Solomon Seay, Elizabeth Findley Shores, Louie Skipper, Warren St. John, Frank Stitt, Jeanie Thompson, Barbara Wiedemann, Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder, Crystal Wilkinson, Kathryn Tucker Windham, Beth Maynor Young, and Bob Zellner.

The Festival will include a dedicated children’s area, with activities such as theater performances, storytelling, magic performances, book characters in costume, hands-on science experiments, and crafts. There will also be appearances by authors of books for children and young adults: Natalie Pope Boyce, Susannah Felts, Charles Ghigna, Helen Hemphill, Peter Huggins, Kerry Madden, Margaret McMullan, Mary Pope Osborne, Laurel Snyder, and Carole Boston Weatherford.

On April 17, the day before the Festival, the Alabama Writers' Forum will be offering two writing workshops. A Writing Stimulus workshop will be led by Erin McGraw and Andrew Hudgins. A second workshop, specifically for teachers, will be led by Kathleen Driscoll and Molly Peacock. Both workshops will be held at Troy University-Montgomery Campus. For information about the workshops, contact the Alabama Writers’ Forum at 334 265 7728 (toll-free 866-901-1117) or email at writersforum@bellsouth.net.

Download the Press Kit for the Alabama Book Festival.

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

2009 Alabama Writers Symposium in Monroeville

Registration has begun for the 12th annual Alabama Writers Symposium to be held on April 30-May 2, 2009. Symposium events will be held on the campus of Alabama Southern Community College, at the Monroeville Community House, and at the Old Courthouse Museum in downtown Monroeville, Ala. This year's theme is "Mystery, Murder, Mayhem, & More."

Participating writers and literary scholars include Nancy Anderson, Philip Beidler, Jake Berry, Rick Bragg, Alan Brown, Kirk Curnutt, Tim Dorsey, Robert Gray, John Hafner, Carolyn Haines, Bert Hitchcock, Frank Turner Hollon, Jennifer Horne, Ravi Howard, Hank Lazer, Don Noble, Julia Oliver, Jennifer Paddock, Tito Perdue, Gin Phillips, Michael Piafsky, Jeanie Thompson and Sue Brannan Walker.

Festival activities include readings, presentations, discussions, workshops, and a dramatization of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird.

Download the brochure (PDF format) for "Mystery, Murder, Mayhem, & More," 2009 Alabama Writers Symposium.

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

2009 Montevallo Literary Festival, April 16-17

The 2009 Montevallo Literary Festival will be held on April 16 and 17 at the University of Montevallo in Montevallo, Ala. Festival activities include readings, presentations, films, panels, workshops, and a performance of the Rebecca Gilman play, Boy Gets Girl.

Participating authors include Daniel Anderson, Emma Bolden, Mary Ward Brown, Christopher Chambers, Rebecca Gilman, Hartford Gongaware, Andrew Grace, Anthony Grooms, Ariana-Sophia Kartsonis, Maurice Manning, Michael Morris, and Janisse Ray.

Fees for non-University of Montevallo students are $45 for the conference only and $95 for the conference plus one workshop. Drama, poetry and prose workshops are available. Workshop participants must register and submit a manuscript by Friday, April 3.

Register for the Montevallo Literary Festival.

View the Festival event schedule.

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

First Draft Spring Issue Now Available Online

The Spring '09 issue of First Draft, the journal of the Alabama Writers' Forum, is now available online in PDF format at the First Draft page of the AWF Web site. PDFs of earlier issues, from Summer '98 through Fall '08, are also available here.

This issue profiles Alabama author Rick Bragg, recipient of the 2009 Harper Lee Award. First Draft also publishes articles about Alabama literary events, author interviews and essays, book reviews, and other items of literary interest.

AWF, a partnership program of the Alabama State Council on the Arts, sponsors community-based programs to promote the appreciation of Alabama's literary heritage and to support Alabama's writers in the various stages of their careers. Their Web site also includes book reviews, a directory of literary resources, and announcements of classes, competitions, and publishing opportunities.

Download a PDF version of the Spring '09 issue of First Draft.

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

Audio: This Goodly Land Downloads via iTunes

This Goodly Land’s new audio programs (along with transcripts and supplemental materials) are now available at the Auburn University College of Liberal Arts section of iTunes U, the portion of the iTunes Store that has video and audio podcasts created by colleges and universities.

All of our materials can be downloaded to your computer for free. The audios can also be streamed, that is, accessed from within iTunes without downloading. If you subscribe, new audios will be downloaded to your computer automatically whenever they are added to the collection.

The iTunes software is also free but you must have it on your computer to access these materials. You can get it from the iTunes download page of the Apple Web site.

Find This Goodly Land audios at iTunes U.

(Of course, you can still listen to and/or download these audios at the new Multimedia page of This Goodly Land's Web site.)

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

Video: New Video Player from Embedr

If you scroll to the bottom of the page, you will notice that we have a new embedded video player.

Last month, the supplier of our old player, Splashcast™, discontinued its free service. Although the Splashcast™ player still worked for the videos we had already selected, it was no longer possible for us to add videos.

Our new player is from Embedr, a free service that allows us to create a playlist of videos and present them to you. We think you'll be happy with the switch.

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