Category Archives: Events

Wiregrass Book Festival

The first-ever Wiregrass Book Festival is tomorrow, Saturday, March 2nd. The festivities kick off at 10:00 a.m. and run until 2:00 p.m. It’s a smaller event that will have book buyers running between local businesses and shops that are hosting readings and signings with local authors.

Here are the locations in Dothan, Alabama:

Downtown Books (150 North Foster Street)

  • Meet thriller writer Logan Ryles
  • Meet adventure novelist Mikelyn Bolden.

Bird and Bean Coffee Shop (144 North Foster Street)

  • Meet Cap Daniels, author of the Chase Fulton thriller novels

Mural City Coffee Company (192 South Foster Street)

  • Meet author Stephen O’Pry

Honey Bee Tees (158 North Foster Street)

  • Meet Southern mystery author Anessa Kent

This sounds like a fun day running around supporting local authors and shops. I hope it’s a big success and the start of something new that grows yearly. I still miss the Alabama Book Festival and wish someone in Montgomery would revive it.

The Wiregrass Book Festival is being organized by the folks who own Downtown Books in Dothan. I haven’t been there yet, but they’ve been a lot of fun to follow on socials since they opened their doors.

Book sale at downtown books for wiregrass book festival

Elizabeth George is Coming to Hoover, AL, in 2024

Elizabeth George Cover

The excellent speaker series Southern Voices festival held at the Hoover Public Library has announced that British crime novelist Elizabeth George is headlining the 2024 event. This annual event is always a good time if you enjoy hanging out with bookish folks and meeting authors. You can find out more about next year’s conference at the Southern Voices site.

The Hoover Sun has all the good details and wonderful author biographies, but the basics are:

  • January 11, 2024 at 10am – tickets go on sale on their site. Tickets for “An Evening with Elizabeth George” are $40, while tickets for Saturday’s Authors Conference are $45. 
  • Sunday, February 18, 2024 – the Southern Voices Festival kicks off its 31st year with two John Waite concerts. One at 3pm and the other at 7pm
  • Tuesday, February 20, 2024 – artist Katie Baldwin lecture and reception
  • Friday, February 23, 2024 – “An Evening with Elizabeth George” at 7pm
  • Saturday, February 24, 2024 – the Southern Voices Author Conference starts at 9am and ends at 4pm.

It’s always fun to see who Southern Voices organizers can get to speak in Hoover, AL, each year. It’s always a thrill when it is someone of Elizabeth George’s caliber. 

There are other authors as well, including Kate Quinn, Yasmin Angoe, John Archibald, Kim Cross, and more. So be sure to click over and read that Hoover Sun article. Then mark your calendars to buy your tickets on January 11, 2024. It’s shaping up to be another great event at the Hoover Library.

Bookstock Festival, Tuscaloosa, Alabama

The second annual Bookstock Festival occurs this Saturday, May 20th, at the New Heights Community Resource Center in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The event is hosted by The Literacy Council of West Alabama and is FREE!

The Bookstock Festival kicks off at 10 am and will close at 2 pm. So it’s a narrow window if you can get there. The folks from the University of Alabama Books Arts Program will be leading a book construction session starting at 10:30 am-12:30 pm.

There is also a painting project where folks can paint Little Library boxes.
There will be author readings, information tables for local area book clubs as well as sign-ups for tutoring help, plus scavenger hunts, photo booths, and more!

It’s free to get in, and lunch is free too!

Fingers crossed that the weather is good and the turnout is even better. Seeing how book-related events can unite communities and help improve things is fun.

For more information, you can contact The Literacy Council of West Alabama.

Alabama Writers Hall of Fame – Class of 2023

The Alabama Writers Hall of Fame will induct its 2023 class during a march 10th dinner in Tuscaloosa. Tickets start at $150 per plate if you’re eating. The occasion begins at 6 p.m. with cocktails and dinner at 7 p.m.

Founded in 2014, the Alabama Writers Hall of Fame is the highest honor an Alabama author can receive from the state. The 2023 inductees are Tom Franklin, Trudier Harris, Angela Johnson, Howell Raines, Michelle Richmond, and Daniel Wallace (Daniel Wallace has a very good book coming out in April that I mentioned in a previous post). 

Authors Eugene Walter and Kathryn Tucker Windham will be inducted posthumously.

Billed as a ‘gala event,’ this year’s proceedings will be overseen by Harper Lee Award winner Carolyn Haines. The dinner features food and cocktails by Eugene Walter, who was famous for hosting parties with Truman Capote way back when.

Alabama Writers Hall of Fame images
Official promotion image created by the Alabama Writers Hall of Fame

This is the first in-person gathering held by the Alabama Writers Hall of Fame since before the pandemic.

During that event, they inducted seven Alabama authors. The 2020 class included Mark Childress, Faye Gibbons, Carolyn Haines, Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, and Michael Knight, with authors Ralph Ellison and Zelda Fitzgerald being inducted posthumously.

Here is a list of all the past Alabama Writers Hall of Fame inductees:

The 2018 Inductee List

  • Joseph Glover Baldwin
  • William Bradford Huie
  • Shirley Ann Grau
  • Gay Talese
  • Wayne Greenhaw
  • Charles Gaines
  • James Haskins
  • Winston Groom

The 2016 Inductee List

  • E. O. Wilson
  • Fannie Flagg
  • Rodney Jones
  • Rebecca Gilman
  • Truman Capote
  • T.S. Stribling
  • Margaret Walker
  • Mary Ward Brown
  • Sequoyah

The 2015 Inductee List

  • Rick Bragg
  • Andrew Glaze
  • Johnson Jones Hooper
  • Zora Neale Hurston
  • Helen Keller
  • Harper Lee
  • William March
  • Albert Murray
  • Sena Jeter Naslund
  • Helen Norris Bell
  • Sonia Sanchez
  • Augusta Jane Evans Wilson

I assume that no one was inducted in 2021 and 2022 due to the pandemic, which is perfectly understandable. I have looked and looked, and I can not find a mention of why there were no Alabama Writers Hall of Fame classes for the years 2017 and 2019. If you know why that is, chime in and let a curious book blogger know.