9th Annual Alabama Bound a Success Thanks to Alabama Writers, Writing Groups and Funders!

Alabama Bound logo
The Birmingham Public Library’s 2007 Alabama Bound celebration of Alabama authors presented 19 authors with ties to Alabama and welcomed 1,439 visitors into the Central Library on April 14. Mark Childress, author of Crazy in Alabama and One Mississippi, began the program by recalling his childhood in Alabama and how it influenced his most recent novel.

Following Childress, the Library presented two panels of local authors, all of whom have had books published in the last two years. The authors, who spoke and signed books after the conclusion of each panel discussion, included:

Hester Bass, So Many Houses (Children’s Easy Reader)
William Cobb, Hermit King (Short Stories)
Ruth Cook, Guests Behind the Barbed Wire (Non-Fiction – Alabama History, WW II)
Sylviane Diouf, Dreams of Africa in Alabama (Non-Fiction – Alabama History, Slavery)
Eric Flint, Grantville Gazette III (Science Fiction)
Charles Ghigna, Love Poems (Poetry)
Rubin Grant, Tales from Alabama Prep Football (Local Sports)
Tim Hollis, Birmingham Broadcasting; Glass Bottom Boats and Mermaid Tails: Florida’s Tourist Springs; Mouse Tracks: the Story of Walt Disney Records; and Six Flags Over Georgia (Coffee Table Books)
Randall Horton, Definition of Place (Poetry)
Watt Key, Alabama Moon (Young Adult Fiction)
Caitlin R. Kiernan, Daughter of Hounds (Horror)
Julia Oliver, Devotion (Historical Fiction)
Delia Ray, Singing Hands (Young Adult Fiction)
Gregory Reece, Elvis Religion, the Cult of the King (Elvis)
John Sledge, An Ornament to the City (Architecture)
Carolyn Quick Tillery, Southern Homecoming (Cook Book with Stories)
Ann Waldron, Rare Murder in Princeton (Murder Mystery)

Alabama Bound concluded with a talk by Angela Johnson, author of Wind Flyers—a children’s book about the renowned Tuskegee Airmen—and winner of the Coretta Scott King Book Award for her book Heaven.

Alabama Bound also presented local publishers—Birmingham Arts Journal and OnStage Publishing—as well as Writers Groups Alabama Media Professionals, Alabama Writers Conclave, Alabama Writers Forum, Booker T. Washington Magnet School Creative Writing, Women Writing for (a) Change, and Writing Today.

The Birmingham Public Library would like to thank its most generous sponsors. The Library is deeply grateful to have received a grant from The Jefferson County Commission through the Jefferson County Community Arts Fund administered by the Cultural Alliance of Greater Birmingham. This grant supported the Library in bringing high-quality authors from all over the State and beyond to Birmingham.

BPL also wishes to thank the Daniel Foundation of Alabama, whose grant to support Alabama Bound was most appreciated.

BPL would like to thank the Alabama State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts for its generous grant to support local Alabama Bound authors.

Thank you also to the many sponsors who donated goods and services to this wonderful event:

Energen
Brighthouse Cable
Birmingham Jefferson Convention Center
Publix of Vestavia Hills
Bruno’s
Barnes & Noble at the Summit
Jim & Nicks, Southside
O’Carr’s in Homewood
Franklin’s in Homewood
Crepe Myrtle’s in Homewood

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