This year marks Agnes Scott College’s 40th annual Writer’s Festival. The festival which will be held this year from March 31st to April 1st hosts acclaimed writers of poetry, prose and for the first time this year songwriting come to Agnes Scott to give readings, performances, and lead workshops for the Festival’s magazine. At the end of the festival the writers then pick winners in the magazine’s categories of poetry, prose, playwriting and songwriting. This is an amazing time for Agnes Scott students and the Decatur community to rub elbows with the literary world’s elite. Past writers have included Junot Diaz, Joyce Carol Oats, Anita Desai, Yusef Komunyakka, Rita Dove, John Updike, Margaret Atwood and many more!

And this year’s writers won’t disappoint either! This is the first year where a featured writer and (Agnes Scott alum!) is a songwriter, a new category that was added to this year’s Festival creative writing competition. Maybe you’ve heard of her? The one and only Grammy award winning Jennifer Nettles of the hit group Sugarland! She cut her teeth on performing music right here in Decatur at Eddies Attic! Jennifer Nettles will be performing Thursday, March 31, 8 p.m. Gaines Chapel, Presser Hall. Ticket required.
The featured fiction writer will be none other than Danzy Senna, the bestselling author of the novels Caucasia, and Symptomatic and the memoir Where Did You Sleep Last Night?: A Personal History. Her debut novel Caucasia, the story of two biracial sisters growing up in racially charged Boston during the 1970s, was the winner of the BOMC Stephen Crane Award for First Fiction, the Alex Award from the American Library Association and The Los Angeles Times’ Best Book of the Year Prize. Her memoir explores the forces of history at work in the power and failure of her parents’ unlikely union. Ms. Senna will be giving a reading of her work Thursday, March 31, 4 p.m. in the Winter Theatre of the Dana Fine Arts Building. Make sure you stick around for the book signing and reception to follow.
The featured poet at the festival will be Arda Collins. Her collection of poems, It Is Daylight, won the 2008 Yale Series of Younger Poets prize. Judge Louise Gluck describes the volume as “a book of astonishing originality and intensity, unprecedented, unrepeatable.” Her poems have recently appeared in The New Yorker, American Poetry Review and A Public Space. A former Glenn Schaeffer Fellow at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, she is pursuing a Ph.D. in poetry at the University of Denver. Arda Collins will be giving her reading Friday, April 1, 1 p.m. in the Winter Theatre of the Dana Fine Arts Building. There will be a book signing and reception to follow. Books of both writers will be available for purchase at the events.

All three writers will participate in a Q&A Session on Thursday, March 31, 1-1:50 p.m., Winter Theatre, Dana Fine Arts Building. Ticket Required.

Tickets have been available to the public beginning Monday, February 7 at the information desk in the Alston Student Center on the Agnes Scott Campus, 141 E. College Ave., Decatur, GA 30030. The Agnes Scott campus is just a short stroll from downtown Decatur so come and pick up your tickets today before they’re all gone!

It's been quite a while since we've rolled out a new Eddie & Agnes concert, but we've just scheduled a great one for March 25th at Presser Hall on the Agnes Scott Campus.
The Flatlanders are Butch Hancock, Joe Ely, and Jimmy Dale Gilmore: Each of them stand as a legend in the Texas songwriting world. I would call them a Tejas songwriting supergroup, but I've always thought a "supergroup" is something formed after the members are already famous, and these guys have been playing together for over three decades.
So come out for this great show. Tickets just went on sale today.

Monday February 7, 2011 at 6 pm
Place: Cathedral of St. Philip
Conor Grennan is going the wrong way up a mountain without food, shelter, light or warmth but he’s got photos of lost young children, and a crumpled rain-stained map. He’s a long way from Poughkeepsie, but he’s on a mission.

Grennan arrived in the remote village of Godawari in Nepal with no experience working with children, ignorant of the dynamics of the civil war there and only a vague idea of the work that lay before him in the Little Princes orphanage. The ‘princes’ he soon learned were not in fact orphans but had been torn from their families through child trafficking. Most of us would throw our hands up in dismay, but Grennan set off to repair the broken families, a quest that would change the course of his life.
Eventually, Conor Grennan returned to the United Staes to launch Next Generation Nepal (NGN), a nonprofit organization dedicated to reconnecting trafficked children with their families in postwar Nepal. After many return trips he has helped reunite more than 300 children with their families. Beyond a thrilling and heartwarming memoir this book will serve as an inspiration to all those who may have once doubted the good that just one person can create in the world.
Grennan’s story is compelling, and he brings a wit and humor to the work that is unusual for these looks into the heart of an on-the-ground changer-of-lives. Reading Little Princes is like having your three cups of tea spiked with a little Irish whiskey.

A portion of proceeds from Little Princes will go toward food, clothing, educational supplies, and finding more families of trafficked children in Nepal. To learn more check out www.nextgenerationnepal.org. Conor currently resides in Connecticut with his wife and son.
--May May Kaufman

Those that know me, know that I can often be seen tooling around with an overripe REI sling bag that sports this Nerd Merit Badge.
I granted myself the Boing Boing merit badge based on an interview in the Oxford American about a set of photos by Anderson Scott. The photos were of an abandoned compound from this wacked out cult down in middle-Georgia--Flannery O'Connor territory.
If I remember correctly, I was the guy with the microphone and recorder-- I didn't even ask the questions. It's a dubious claim to being boing boinged, but I really wanted the badge.
Andy has just posted the photos on his own site after all these years, and they're great to see again. If you are looking for a good writing exercise, take a look at the photos, read a couple pages of The Habit of Being, and try to write Miss O'Connor's response to them. Even better, try to write Mary Flannery telling the story of her mother Regina's response. That would make for some good reading.

We are very proud to be a sponsor of Decatur Docs, a new series of indy documentaries being shown in downtown Decatur. Next Saturday, we are proud to present the Southeastern premiere of Hey Boo: Harper Lee & To Kill A Mockingbird.
In the popular mind, there are two giants of Southern Writing. Mockingbird, and that trashy thing whats-her-name wrote over on Peachtree Street.
I could go through my entire life without hearing about that woman dressed in green velvet drapes (well, unless we're talking about Carol Burnett), but the chance to spend a little more time with Scout--I'd sign up in a flash.
So y'all come out for this showing, next Saturday, January 22, at 7pm. The film's director, Mary Murphy, will be there, signing copies of her book Scout, Atticus and Boo: 50 years of To Kill A Mockingbird.
I'm not sure why Jem got left out, but life is full of compromises.

Last year, Neil Gaiman came to town for an event at Agnes Scott that I helped put together with Little Shop of Stories.

A good time was had by all. Part of my contribution was to ferry Mr. Gaiman and party from Little Shop over to Presser Hall, the site of the event. Before he got out, I asked him to sign the dashboard of my Scion. Our friends over at Decatur Metro indulged me with a post .

I thought that was the end of it, but then soon afterward, the New Yorker put out a long profile about Neil Gaiman, and I almost got my lifelong dream of being mentioned in the New Yorker, when Dana Goodyear wrote

It was a foggy day, with intermittent rain, and people started lining up before noon outside Agnes Scott College, which was hosting the event. The reading started at six. On the way there, the head of the Decatur book festival, who was to introduce Gaiman, got him to sign his dashboard.

Okay, so my name doesn't appear, and they didn't even treat Decatur Book Festival as a proper noun, but it's the New Yorker. I'll take what I can get. Someday I'll sell this car to a goth kid for twice its value because now I get to use an old issue of the New Yorker as a certificate of authenticity.
But then today I read this in the Atlanta Business Chronicle:

Penguin Books is selling a special 2010 Mini Cooper on AutoTrader.com, with proceeds to benefit the New York Public Library.

The 2010 Mini Cooper SD includes a dashboard signed by 18 Penguin authors, including Garrison Keillor of Lake Wobegon fame, Pulitzer Prize winning authors William Kennedy and Geraldine Brooks, plus New York Times bestselling authors Michael Pollan, Sue Monk Kidd, Jan Karon, Rosanne Cash and more.

Nifty coincidence, right? I'll certainly admit that I have no copyright on having car parts signed by famous folks. In college, I had a friend who had Warren Zevon sign his headrest.
But here's the kicker. I had three people in my car for that ride. Mr. Gaiman, Dana Goodyear from the New Yorker, and.....wait for it....the head of publicity for Penguin Books.
Sheesh. They could have at least sent the car down to the DBF as part of its tour.

Restaurant Eugene Author Dinner with Susan Rebecca White
Dinner and Book Signing
Tuesday, 9/28
6:30 - 10:30 p.m. Restaurant Eugene
Join Chef Linton Hopkins for the launch of his new dinner series, an exploration of food and the book, called the Eugene Author Dinners. The premier dinner, on September 28, 2010 will pair the James Beard Nominated Chef with celebrated local author Susan Rebecca White to produce an evening and menu inspired by White's newest book, A Soft Place to Land.
Born and raised in Atlanta, White spent many years in San Francisco before returning to her hometown, where she teaches creative writing at Emory University. Her most recent book, A Soft Place to Land, is based on a fictional, yet archetypal Atlanta family. Chef Hopkins, also an Atlanta native, will build a four-course menu in homage to his treasured Atlanta food memories as well as those of White's fictional family. Guests are invited to share their own stories about Atlanta Cuisine. "It's exciting to do this first dinner with someone like Susan," notes Chef Hopkins. "We share many hometown experiences in common, from a nostalgic appreciation of the Varsity, to our graduation from the same high school, Westminster. We are going to celebrate Atlanta's culinary past, present and future, with good food and memorable conversation."
Festivities begin at 6:30 p.m. with a reception and book signing. A four-course dinner with pairings will be seated at 7:00 p.m. Cost is $95 per person. Reservations required. A complimentary copy of A Soft Place to Land will be given to each guest. Additional copies will be available for purchase, along with copies of Ms. White's other books.

Ken Follett: Fall of Giants

Wednesday, September 29, 7:00 p.m.

Jimmy Carter Presidential Library - Day Chapel

Attempting to tell the tale of the 20th century is the literary equivalent of surmounting Everest. Most authors likely wouldn't even make it out of base camp. But Ken Follett is a breed apart. Since publishing his first work more than three decades ago, the British novelist has exhibited a sweeping vision that has helped him become one of the world's most popular storytellers, with more than 100 million copies of his books, including 1989's The Pillars of the Earth and its 2007 sequel, World Without End, sold around the globe over the years.
On September 28th, Follett's new historical novel, Fall of Giants, is set to be released simultaneously in 14 countries. The first part in his Century Trilogy, which will chronicle world-changing events throughout the 1900s, the book is sure to create a frenzy of excitement among Follett's legions of fans.
The night after its release – on September 29th at 7:00 p.m. at the Carter Center's Day Chapel – those in the Atlanta area will have the chance to hear the author's take on Fall of Giants first-hand, as Follett discusses the book with WABE radio's Valerie Jackson during a taping of the show "Between the Lines."


John Stauffer: GIANTS: The Parallel Lives of Fredrick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln
Thursday September 30, 8pm – 9pm
Atlanta History Center

Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln were the self-made men of their time. One man was a former slave and a radical reformer who became one of the nation’s most brilliant writers and speakers.

The other was an outsider, born dirt-poor, who became one of America’s greatest presidents. While the Civil War raged, the two titans—Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln—formed an unlikely friendship that changed the nation’s course.

In his book, Giants: The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln, John Stauffer traces how each man used the other—and how their political game ultimately led to mutual admiration and respect.
Admission is $5 members; $10 for nonmembers. Reservations are required for all lectures. Call 404.814.4150.

Our programming gurus, Tom Bell and Terra Elan McVoy, take great pride in their ability to program for a diverse audience. They have, however, missed an important book loving segment, and we have been called out. A letter of protest has been received in our offices from Kona K., head of public relations at Bound to Be Read Books.

My name is Kona Kitty and I am the Director of Public Relations at Bound To Be Read Books, plus a paw model, and lead singer in the all-feline punk band Kona Kitty and the Kinky Whiskers. Purrhaps the name rings a tiny silver bell … Ding-a-ling? I’m also an author and currently shopping my life story, Furmoir: My Life in Fur, as well as my historical Southern epic, Fsst! with the Wind.

It has come to my attention that there is a paucity of pussycats in the 2010 Decatur Book Festival program. Not only is there a very blatant human bias in the featured authors and events, but I am deeply troubled that you included a “Man’s Best Friend Track” of talks by authors of books about dogs.

And where, purr-chance is the “Cats ‘R’ Cool Track” of talks by authors of books about kitties? In reviewing the program, I have identified not one author or event featuring writers of the feline purrsuasion. Once again cats have been pushed to the back of the pet carrier, leaving a slobbering face as the image of domesticated pets everywhere. I hiss in your general direction!

Maybe I could look beyond this egregious species bias had the books featured in your doggie track actually been written by dogs. But no—they’re written by humans! (I’m beginning to see a disturbing pattern here, Mr. Wang.) Why the Decatur Book Festival would want to highlight an animal that slobbers profusely and has to be walked to the toilet several times a day is beyond me. Dogs have as much in common with books as birds have with kilts. Cats, on the other paw, are like a good book in lots of ways, although space does not permit me to list them now.

It’s also imperative to mention the great legends of the feline literary canon whose names and masterpieces you have blatantly ignored. Who can forget the screwball comedy of Mr. Mittens’ zany tale of a jealous housecat who sells the new baby on e-Bay in I Bid You Adieu?

Who didn’t fear for all of their nine lives while reading Lady Bird Munchenstein’s thriller about a recovering catnip junkie stalked by a psychopathic gardener in Nip It in the Bud?

Who could quit turning pages to find out how an ordinary tomcat could pull off a pet store heist in Puss in Cahoots? Wonderful stories, all!

Clearly an injustice has occurred under your leadership, Mr. Wang, and recompense – or a tuna milkshake, at the very least – is called for.

This is a serious matter and, although I support the fabulous job that you do in the Atlanta literary community, we cats must stand up for dignity and inclusion. Therefore, I am calling for a feline boycott of the 2010 Decatur Book Festival.

That’s right, there will be no pussycats shyly raising their paws during the keynote speaker’s address to ask Mr. Franzen if he prefers short-hairs to long-haired breeds. There will be no cats to walk between Ms. Gruen’s legs and warm her ankles. And there will be no pussycat posse patrolling the Old Courthouse for rogue mice that may interrupt your little soiree with their tiny pitter-pattering feet.

I am feline; hear me roar!

If the kitty literati is not shown some love at the 2011 Decatur Book Festival, I promise you that books will be shredded, Mr. Wang, books will be shredded …

Miaow for now,

Kona Kitty,

Director of Public Relations

It's not as if my own cats haven't lodged this complaint with me personally. We should have been more sensitive to the issue

Bookzilla has arrived. I hope to see any and all of you Verb followers out on the Decatur Square this weekend for the AJC-Decatur Book Festival.

If you are a crackpot organization like the DBF, how do you celebrate your fifth festival? You host Grammy-winning musical icon, a Time-Magazine cover-getting, National-Book-Award-winning great American novelist, and then you add the winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, just because you can. That's all in a three-week stretch. Muhamed Yunus, won the big one for his work in Microfinance, and will discuss his new book , Building Social Business. The event is free and open to the public. Please come out for a once-in-a-lifetime chance. We are co-hosting with Agnes Scott College and Coca-Cola.
Wednesday, August 25th, 8pm
Agnes Scott College, Presser Hall