Carolyn Newton Curry to detail ‘Trudy’s Awakening’ During Free Atlanta Authors Talk Nov. 1 at Roswell Library

Carolyn Newton Curry will be the Atlanta Authors featured speaker Saturday, Nov. 1, at 2 p.m. at the Roswell Library, discussing her new novel, “Trudy’s Awakening.”

The award-winning writer and historian will be accompanied by another author with the same last name – her husband, Bill Curry, former professional football player and college coach. His book, “Ten Men You Meet in the Huddle: Lessons from a Football Life,” details teammates and coaches who turned him from a next-to-last NFL draft pick into a two-time Pro Bowler.

In fact, Carolyn Curry’s second book, the 2022 novel “Sudden Death,” was based on her experiences as the wife of a football player and coach. A murder mystery, it’s set in the world of college football.

“I knew that world well,” Curry said recently. “Bill and I both had had death threats. I thought, if one of those folks followed through, how would they do it?” Writing the book was “fun and a godsend during Covid,” said Curry, who was 78 when “Sudden Death” was released.

Her publishing odyssey, however, began eight years earlier, when her doctoral dissertation on a Confederate suffragist in Georgia was released after being shelved for two decades. In 2015, “Suffer and Grow Strong: The Life of Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas, 1834-1907” was named one of the Books All Georgians Should Read by the Georgia Center for the Book. That same year, Curry received the Georgia Author of the Year Award for biography from the Georgia Writers Association.

“I have called myself an accidental writer,” she said, noting she devoted her life to academics while her husband’s football jobs took them around the country. Twenty moves in 10 years while he played professional football were followed by coaching turns in Green Bay, Wis., Tuscaloosa, Ala., and Lexington, Ky. Curry estimates she watched 700 games her husband either played in or coached.

“Once our two children started school, I started taking graduate courses in history one at a time. I wanted to do something meaningful,” she said. In 2002, she founded Women Alone Together, a women’s support nonprofit for which she served as director till 2022. Women remained a focus in her writing, as well.

“My passion became finding the women who were left out of the history books,” she said. Twelve years after sharing Thomas’s nonfiction story, Curry once again revisited the 19th century suffragist in “Trudy’s Awakening,” this time as historical fiction. In addition to Thomas, whom Curry knew family and friends had called Trudy, her third work “also tells the story of two other real women – Lizzie, an artist, and Amanda, an enslaved woman.”

Midwest Book Review called the novel, “Original, eloquent, and with fictional characters given a background of authenticity through author Carolyn Newton Curry's meticulous and dedicated historical research, ‘Trudy's Awakening’ is a fascinating and compelling read from cover to cover. A work of historical fiction raised to an impressive level of literary excellence.”

Just as they have since her first book was published and she had 100-plus speaking engagements, the couple is crisscrossing the country as Carolyn promotes her work and Bill serves as the supportive spouse. Already, they’ve traveled from North Carolina to Kentucky and around Georgia for “Trudy’s Awakening.” While they’re still shy of those 700 football games, Curry shows no signs of slowing down.

“Here I go again,” the 82-year-old happily said.

Curry’s Atlanta Authors presentation is free and open to the public with registration.

Bookmiser will have copies of Curry’s books available to personalize. For more information, go to atlantaauthorsga.com.