Johns Creek Literary Fair Includes Four-Person Panel of Renowned Historical Fiction Writers, Plus Headliners

For holiday shoppers with eclectic gift lists, a wide range of genres will be available for personalizing during the third-annual Johns Creek Literary Fair Nov. 15.

Over 30 authors of fiction or nonfiction and adult or children’s themes will be engaging with readers from noon-5 p.m. at a new location – Johns Creek City Hall, 11360 Lakefield Drive.

Fans of contemporary fiction with a Southern flair will be thrilled by keynote speaker Karen White, the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of 37 novels. With nearly 2 million books in print in 15 languages, White will discuss and sign her new release, “The Lady on Esplanade,” the third novel in her Royal Street series.

Children’s books will be a special JCLF focus this year. The event’s "catnote" speaker, former Gov. Nathan Deal, who served as Georgia’s 82nd governor from 2011-19, will kick off festivities at 12:30 p.m. by detailing his children’s title, “Veto, the Governor’s Cat.” All About Cats, a Roswell cat and kitten rescue, also will be on hand with information about adopting and volunteering.

As for historical fiction, a four-person panel of renowned writers will address this perpetually popular genre. Kimberly Brock will moderate a 2 p.m. conversation with Meagan Church, Carolyn Newton Curry and Piper Huguley.

Brock is the award winning author of “The Fabled Earth” and “The Lost Book of Eleanor Dare,” which spent three weeks on the Southern Independent Booksellers bestseller list. Both novels have been shortlisted for the prestigious Townsend Prize for Fiction. Her debut title, “The River Witch,” won the Georgia Author of the Year Award. In addition to speaking widely on the creative life and Southern and historical fiction, Brock has been featured on the History Channel’s “History’s Greatest Mysteries.”

Church is the author of the instant New York Times and USA Today bestselling novel “The Mad Wife,” as well as “The Girls We Sent Away” and “The Last Carolina Girl.” Her emotionally charged, empathy-driven fiction explores women’s inner lives and the silencing of their stories. She is an adjunct faculty member in Drexel University’s MFA program and lives in the Charlotte area with her family

Curry is an award-winning author, historian and founder of a nonprofit women’s support organization, which she directed for 22 years. Her books include “Trudy’s Awakening,” published in September, “Sudden Death” and “Suffer and Grow Strong: The Life of Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas 1834-1907,” which was on the Georgia Center for the Book’s 2015 list of Books All Georgians Should Read. Curry also was named 2015 Georgia Author of the Year by the Georgia Writers Association.

Huguley, a literature professor at Clark-Atlanta University, is the author of “American Daughters” (2024), which tells the unknown story of the decades-long interracial friendship between the rebel teenage daughters of President Theodore Roosevelt and Booker T. Washington. Her novel, “By Her Own Design: a novel of Ann Lowe, Fashion Designer to the Social Register” (2022), was selected as the historical fiction winner for 2022 by the American Library Association’s Reading Council and has been optioned by Sony/Tristar with Ruth Carter and Serena Williams as producers.

Bookmiser will sell all six noted authors’ books, which can be autographed and personalized.

The free event, in partnership with Arts On The Creek and presented by Bookmiser, the Atlanta Writers Club and Appen Media Group, will additionally feature over 25 local writers, including three-year master of ceremonies George Weinstein, AWC executive director.

More information about the JCLF is here.