1.Following columnist Lewis Grizzard was not easy, but with intelligent wit and an Alabama cadence Rheta Grimsley Johnson's voice was not only welcome in the world of national syndicated columnists it was praised. The winner of numerous journalism awards discusses writing and her new memoir, Enchanted Evening Barbie.

 

2.Brad Watson's writing captures what it means to be human with an uncanny sensitvity. Sometimes he uses people. Sometimes he uses dogs. And then there's his latest book, Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives.

 

3.In the Sanctuary of Outcasts is Neil White's story of incarceration at the last leper colony in the country. While there, White discovers he was wrong about a lot of things. Myth and misunderstanding, not fact and science, still propagate what is known about the disease. White also comes face to face with himself and the wrongs he'd committed but manages to recount the story without preaching.

 

4. Before becoming the Tennessee Williams playwright-in-residence at his alma mater, Sewanee. Thomas Lakeman wrote in and for Hollywood. With candor and humor, he discusses his page-turning thrillers including Broken Wing and Shadow Catchers.

 

5. Harvard biologist E. O. Wilson has, after winning two Pulitzer Prizes and altering the scientific landscape, changed direction from non-fiction to fiction with his first novel, Anthill.

 

6. Tom Rickman is best known for writing the Oscar-winning screenplay, Coal Minter's Daughter., though he has written dozens of features for film and television. He discusses how the rural setting of place influenced his work and shares stories about the process of screenwriting and the screenwriting life.

 

7. Silas House has won many awards including Kentucky Novel of the Year twice, the Appalachian Writer of the Year, the Appalachian Book of the Year, the Award for Special Achievement from the Fellowship of Southern Writers, and many other honors. For his environmental activism House received the Helen Lewis Community Lewis Award. House has written for magazines and other publications. Eli the Good and Parchment of Leaves are favorites among his books.

 

8. The list of Carolyn Haines's books is long and often includes the word “Bones” in the title. The Alabama mystery writer is the 2010 recipient of the Harper Lee Award. Haines writes from Mobile where she teaches at the University of South Alabama and continues pleasing audiences with the characters she creates.

 

9. Sue Brannan Walker is the Poet Laureate of Alabama, Director of Creative Writing, and Stokes Distinguished Professor at the University of South Alabama and publisher of Negative Capability Press. Most recently her duties as poet laureate included writing the memorial poem for the patients buried at the Bryce Hospital Cemetery. Walker talks about her duties as poet laureate and the conversation culminates with the reading of two poems.

 

10. Melinda Rainey Thompson and Morgan Murphy offer countering perspectives on everything from restaurants to romance in their book, I Love You--Now Hush.

 

11. Infamous is Ace Atkins latest and perhaps best true crime novel. The South's only gangster, Machine gun Kelly. Robs his way into infamy. But it is his wife that increasingly dominates the story. Atkins discusses the long hours of meticulous research that went into the novel before the writing ever began.

 

12.In a double-header, Amanda Gable and Susan Rebecca White discuss their novels: The Confederate General Rides North is Amanda Gable's first novel. She received her PhD in American Literature and Feminist Studies and has been awarded grants for her fiction by the Georgia Council for the Arts, among others. In Bound South, Susan Rebecca White manages to be hilarious while creating three southern women who intersect in unexpected ways. She returned home to Atlanta where she teaches creative writing at Emory University.

 

13. John Lee, best-selling author of The Flying Boy: Healing the Wounded Man, has written sixteen books, including his latest release The Missing Peace. He has been featured on Oprah, 20/20, Barbara Walters' The View, CNN, PBS, and NPR and has become a renowned expert in the field of anger management. He has been interviewed by Newsweek, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and dozens of other national magazines and radio talk shows.