Tag: Books

“Brooding twilight,” “great pie,” and “a southern version of Twin Peaks”: Savannah through the eyes of Patton Oswalt, Anne Rice, and other Savannah Book Festival authors

I wasn’t able to attend any of the Savannah Book Festival this year, but I’ve been following some of the action on Twitter and Facebook. (By the way, the SBF could be a lot more active on social media when…

Flannery O’Connor died 50 years ago today — a few thoughts

Mary Flannery O’Connor died on August 3, 1964 — 50 years ago today. What more would Flannery O’Connor have written if she had lived to the age of 89? What would she not have written in her 20s and 30s…

Grace Leigh (Jack Leigh’s daughter) and her partner launch Kickstarter for book of photographs from across the nation

It’s really hard to believe that Jack Leigh died almost 10 years ago. The Savannah photographer created many iconic images that shared, in the most visceral of ways, his passion for place and for people. His daughter Grace Leigh is…

Flannery O’Connor-inspired art in Southern Discomfort 2, silent auction and reception on 1/31

I haven’t read everything that Flannery O’Connor ever wrote — I haven’t yet tackled the recently released A Prayer Journal, for example. But I’ve been immersed to varying degrees in O’Connor’s life and work for I guess about a decade…

“Midnight” at 20; John Berendt’s book continues to resonate

Before I launch into a few thoughts of my own, I want to plug SavannahNow’s really interesting multimedia package about the 20th anniversary of the publication of John Berendt’s Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Kim Wade’s feature…

Pulitzer winner Robert Olen Butler inspires readers, writers at Savannah appearances

At the Flannery O’Connor Childhood Home’s 5th annual Ursrey Memorial Lecture last week, Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Olen Butler spoke with considerable passion about the creative act of writing. “Art comes from the place where you dream.” He was talking…

Brad Gooch goes from Flannery O’Connor to Rumi, from Georgia to Tajikistan

Brad Gooch‘s outstanding biography Flannery: A Life of Flannery O’Connor shined an appropriate spotlight on arguably the most influential Savannah-born writer of the 20th century — and one of the most important writers in the South. Many of us affiliated…

Happy 88th Birthday, Flannery O’Connor

When an author has died young, it’s pretty typical to hear readers bemoan the loss of all that work that never had the chance to be created. But I don’t often hear readers of Flannery O’Connor talk about what she…

A few final thoughts on the Savannah Book Festival

In my City Talk column on Tuesday in the Savannah Morning News, I noted the big crowds for Saturday’s Savannah Book Festival and also mentioned the beautiful backdrops for many of the presentations. I already posted some thoughts and a…

Al Gore talks about “The Future” at the Savannah Book Festival — commentary and photos

I especially appreciated Gore’s invocation of this passage from Lincoln’s December 1862 message to Congress: “The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise — with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.”

Great lineup means touch choices for Savannah Book Festival attendees

Given the quality and quantity of the authors participating, it’s going to be a day of trade-offs and really tough choices.

Back in the Day Bakery in the national spotlight on public radio’s “The Splendid Table”

What a lovely surprise on Sunday to hear Cheryl Day’s voice on “The Splendid Table”, American Public Media’s show hosted by the sometimes-overly-cheery Lynne Rossetto Kasper.

Punk historian Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain appearing in Savannah later this month

Legs McNeil is best known for 1997’s Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk, co-founded Punk Magazine and was an editor at both Spin and Nerve.

SMN: Al Gore added to 2013 Savannah Book Festival

From Former vice president Al Gore joins 2013 Savannah Book Festival in the Savannah Morning News today: To a list that already includes celebrity authors James Patterson, David Baldacci, T.C. Boyle, Dave Barry, Jeff Kinney, Bobby Deen and Gregg Allman,…