Pulitzer Prize-Winning Rick Bragg Headlines Free Literary Event Sunday

The Johns Creek Literary Fair Sunday, Sept. 29, will be free and full of can’t-miss author talks.

Rick Bragg, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, acclaimed writer and bestselling author of 11 nonfiction books, will headline the event, in conversation with Brian Panowich, award-winning Georgia-based novelist. They will be joined by 34 local, regional and nationally known adult and children’s writers appearing from noon-5 p.m. at the Mark Burkhalter Amphitheater at Newtown Park.

Festivities will begin with attendees invited to have lunch (which they may buy or bring) while 20 local authors take the stage to give short descriptions of their books. Those titles will be available for purchase throughout the afternoon, as will food, wine and other beverages.

Next up, a “Legal Eagles with Scribe Vibes” panel will spotlight Atlanta-area attorneys who have penned books, including Deepa Varadarajan, author of “Late Bloomers,” Lo Patrick, whose most recent crime novel is “The Night the River Wept,” Michael L. Thurmond, chief executive officer of DeKalb County and author of “James Oglethorpe, Father of Georgia: A Founder’s Journey from Slave Trader to Abolitionist,” and moderator C. Matthew Smith, author of “Twentymile.”

Additionally, the JCLF will feature children’s authors and crafts led by nonprofit arts groups. Once again, the master of ceremonies will be George Weinstein, executive director of the Atlanta Writers Club. Weinstein has spent decades working with writers throughout metro Atlanta and beyond, including the Appalachian foothills of northeastern Alabama, home to the JCLF’s renowned headliner.

Bragg, lauded as one of the most distinctive, illustrative storytellers in American literature for more than three decades, began his career at newspapers before writing nearly a dozen books and penning columns in magazines including Southern Living and Garden & Gun. His first book, the national bestseller “All Over but the Shoutin’,” has become something of an anthem for the people of the mountain South, and he says he holds that regard, more than any award he has won, most dear. The book tells Bragg’s story of being raised by a single mother who worked as a maid and picked cotton to hold her family together. He has often said he climbed up his mother’s backbone to escape the future he seemed predestined to live.

From a job at the Jacksonville News for $50 a week in the 1970s, Bragg worked his way to the Birmingham News, then on to the St. Petersburg Times. Soon, he garnered a reputation for writing about people in trouble and, in 1992, was awarded a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University, where he studied history.

A brief stint at the Los Angeles Times was followed by a job at the New York Times, where, in 1996, he won a Pulitzer Prize for “elegantly written stories on contemporary America.” Many other awards followed, as have numerous New York Times bestsellers including “Ava’s Man,” “Prince of Frogtown,” “The Best Cook in the World” and “The Speckled Beauty."

For nearly 20 years, Bragg has been the Clarence Cason Professor of Writing at the University of Alabama. For the past 10, he has cared for his mother on their farm in Alabama.

Bookmiser will have Bragg’s titles available for purchase and personalization. Books by Panowich, the panel authors and the local and children’s authors will also be for sale throughout the JCLF.

2024 JOHNS CREEK LITERARY FAIR SCHEDULE:

Noon-12:30: Arrival time; buy/unpack lunch and find a seat

12:30-1:30: Lunch with Local Authors

1:30-2:00: Mix and mingle with Local Authors at their tables

2:00-3:00: Legal Eagles With Scribe Vibes Panel

3:00-3:30: Signing time with Panel authors

3:30-4:30: Rick Bragg/Brian Panowich keynote event

4:30-5:00: Signing time with Bragg/Panowich

Noon-5:00: Children's Authors reading to and celebrating kids

For more information, go to https://johnscreekga.gov/recreation-parks/special-events/literary-fair/.