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Named Best Literary Magnet By Atlanta Magazine 2007

Events at the Margaret Mitchell House & Museum and The Literary Center

A Voyage Long and Strange

Tony Horwitz

A Literary Salon Event

6pm reception, 7pm program
Wednesday, May 14
Admission: $10; $5 for AHC members;
free for MMH members

A Voyage Long and Strange captures the wonder and drama of first contact, as Horwitz attempts to understand what happened in the Americas between Columbus’ arrival and the Mayflower’s landing on Plymouth Rock. During this time, vikings, conquistadors, French voyageurs, among others, roamed the unknown continent in search of grapes, gold, converts, and even a cure for syphilis. Though most failed to locate their treasure, their adventures and exploits left an indelible impression on those they met, peoples who would eventually come face to face with the English settlers. Tracing these early adventurers’ legacy from Florida’s Fountain of Youth to subarctic sweat lodges enables Horwitz to reveal the gap between what we revere and what we forget. With humor and great historical insight, Horwitz’s journey to the past allows us to see the New World for first time. Tony Horwitz is the bestselling author of Blue Latitudes, Confederates in the Attic, and Baghdad Without a Map. He is also a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist who has worked for The Wall Street Journal and The New Yorker. He lives in Martha’s Vineyard with his wife, Geraldine Brooks, and their son, Nathaniel.

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TWELVE Hotels & Residences Presents

Escape from Andersonville

Academy Award-winning actor Gene Hackman and Daniel Lenihan @ The Atlanta History Center (130 West Paces Ferry Road)

6pm reception; 7 pm program;
8pm book signing
Friday, May 16
Admission: $35 per person ticket includes admission to program, hors d’oeuvres at the reception, entry to the award-winning exhibit Turning Point: The American Civil War, and one copy of Escape from Andersonville

This special author event will benefit the PEN/Faulkner Writers in Schools program.

**Reservations required: 770-578-3502**

It’s July 1864, and Union officer Nathan Parker and his men, all members of the Fifth Michigan, are ambushed and captured by Confederate troops near Monocacy.  They’re soon imprisoned at nightmarish Andersonville prison camp in Georgia, where 30,000 Union soldiers are crowded into twenty acres with no shelter except for whatever they can fashion for themselves. The only relief to the overcrowding comes with the daily death count and the space the newly departed leave behind.  Only a handful of men have ever escaped the camp--also known as Fort Sumter—but as others die around them, Nathan and his men hatch a daring plan that would allow him to flee and make his way to Vicksburg. Two-time Academy Award-winning actor Gene Hackman is the co-author of two previous novels, Justice for None and Wake of the Perdido Star, with Daniel Lenihan, a leading underwater archaeologist who writes frequently for Natural History magazine.

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A Dangerous Age

Ellen Gilchrist

A Literary Salon Event

6pm reception, 7pm program
Tuesday, May 20
Admission: $10; $5 for AHC members;
free for MMH members

The women of the Hand family understand controversy and sadness. These moments, in fact, are part of a heritage that reaches back for generations. For Louise Hand, this legacy means coping with the possible loss of her lover, who has vowed revenge for the injuries his twin brother suffered in Iraq. For Winifred Hand, it’s the loss of her fiancé, who perished in 9/11. And for Olivia Hand, a strong-willed and independent newspaper editor, it is a war that has been simply a subject for editorials until her own newlywed husband gets called up for service. With prose that is often wry and always direct and immediate, Gilchrist gives voice to three women on a collision course with a distant war that is never more than a breathe away. Ellen Gilchrist, winner of the National Book Award, is the author of more than twenty books, including novels, short stories, poetry and a memoir. She lives in Arkansas.

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The Legend of Colton H. Bryant

Alexandra Fuller

A Literary Salon Event

6pm reception, 7pm program
Thursday, May 22
Admission: $10; $5 for AHC members;
free for MMH members

The Legend of Colton H. Bryant is the true story of an unlikely American hero, a young man living in the wind-ripped, wide-open plains of Wyoming, a place where cowboys still break horses and the oil companies drill far into the earth. Colton Bryant lived an iconic and almost bygone American lifestyle, hunting jackrabbits and sleeping under the Wyoming stars. He lived by the motto, “Mind over matter. I don’t mind, so it don’t matter.” When Colton reached adulthood, he started to work for the oil company like many others in his small community. The moving, tough, and in many ways quintessentially American story of Colton H. Bryant’s life could not be told without also telling the story of the land that grew him—the beautiful and somehow tragic Wyoming. Alexandra Fuller is the author of Don’t Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood, a national bestseller, a New York Times Notable Book of 2002, and a finalist for the Guardian First Book Award, and Scribbling the Cat, winner of the 2005 Ulysses Award for Art of Reportage. Fuller lives in Wyoming with her husband and children.

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Patti Callahan Henry

The Art of Keeping Secrets

7pm launch party
Monday, June 2
FESTIVITY at the Forum in Gwinnett
5145 Peachtree Parkway
Norcross, GA 30092
Admission: Free

Proceeds will benefit children's scholarships for writing classes at the Margaret Mitchell House

Since a plane crash killed her husband two years ago, Annabelle Murphy has found solace in raising her two children. Just when she thinks the grief is behind her, she receives the news that the wreckage of the small plane has been discovered—and that her husband did not die alone. He was with another woman. Suddenly, Annabelle is forced to question everything she once held true. Sophie Parker knows the woman who was on that plane. A dolphin researcher who has lived a quiet life, Sophie has never let anyone get too close. But when Annabelle shows up on Sophie’s doorstep full of painful questions, both women must confront their intertwining pasts—and find the courage to face the truth. Patti Callahan Henry is the national bestselling author of four novels with Penguin/NAL: Losing the Moon, Where the River Runs, When Light Breaks, Betweeen the Tides. She has been short-listed for the Townsend Prize for Fiction and has been nominated for the Southeastern Independent Booksellers Fiction Novel of the Year. She lives outside Atlanta with her family.

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What Women Want (in a Great Summer Read)

A Literary Salon Event

6pm reception, 7pm program
Tuesday, June 17
Admission: $10; $5 for AHC members; free for MMH members

Summer time is precious. Why waste it reading books that aren’t fabulous?

Katie Hickman (Courtesans), Karen Essex (Leonardo's Swans) and Sheila Weller (Dancing at Ciro's) chat about their new titles and explore what women really want to read during their precious summer vacations.

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Atlanta magazine presents

Georgia Author Book Bash (GABB)

Co-sponsored by Capella University

4-7pm party
Sunday, June 29
Admission: $15; $10 for MMH members,  AHC members and
Atlanta magazine subscribers
Pre-payment required: 770.578.3502

For more information, including a list of participating authors, visit our GABB page.

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