>> UPCOMING EVENTS
The end of a year typically triggers reflections and predictions of what’s to come once that final calendar page turns.
In 2022, Georgia Writers Museum (GWM) is ending its best year ever. While we look back with pride, we also expect this coming year to be even better. We have many special workshops planned, including GWM’s 2nd annual Weekend Writers Retreat Feb. 24-26, but we feel particularly enthusiastic about our 2023 Meet the Author lineup.
Kim Conrey (Feb. 7) will bring her science-fiction romance novel, Stealing Ares, to the museum. Set in the 25th century, this book captures events following the eruption of the caldera under Yellowstone National Park, which spreads ashen death across the Earth, making it no longer able to supply the struggling colony on Mars. The planet is ripe for revolution, but thief Harlow Hanson becomes the only one capable of saying the words that can save the colony.
Next Wanda Smalls Lloyd and Tina McElroy Ansa (March 7) will present Meeting at the Table. The authors thrilled an audience this past year at Putnam County High School at an event sponsored by the GWM Junior Board. In the aftermath of the tragic deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, editors Ansa and Lloyd created a project to bring voices of African American women together in order to share how race and culture have affected them.
April 4, Ben Wynne presents his book, Something in the Water, a history of Macon through the lens of its musical past. The story includes a vast, eclectic cast of characters, including the city’s first music celebrity, Sidney Lanier; rockand- roll founding father Little Richard Penniman; rhythmand- blues icons James Brown and Otis Redding; and The Allman Brothers Band, among others.
Leslie Hooton (May 2) brings her novel, After Everyone Else. Hooten’s main character, Bailey, is married to the man she loves, has started a family, and her design business is flourishing. When her ex-husband, a famous TV chef, is found dead with her DNA all over his apartment, she faces murder charges. She must do everything to prove her innocence.
On June 6, Dan Chapman will present his book, A Road Running Southward, part travelogue, part environmental plea. This book reveals a South under siege. It offers a detailed journal of Chapman’s travels from Kentucky to Florida and serves as a call to action to save one of the most biodiverse regions of the world by understanding what may be lost if nothing is done.
The second half of the year will feature Katherine Reay (July 18) on A Shadow in Moscow; Wanda M. Morris (Aug. 1) on her book, Anywhere You Run; Ann Hite (Oct. 3) with Haints on Black Mountain: A Haunted Short Story Collection; Steven Cooper (Sept. 12) with Desert Remains, Johnathon Scott Barrett (Nov. 7) presenting Cook & Celebrate; and CBS Sports insider Tony Barnhart (Dec. 5) on his latest book, From Herschel to a Hobnail Boot.
Make becoming a regular supporter of Georgia Writers Museum one of your New Year’s resolutions by attending events, donating and becoming a museum advocate.
-Contributed