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| Judson Mitcham. Credit: Kent Nessel. |
This year’s festival featured panels by Press authors Glenn T. Eskew, Judson Mitcham, and Paul M. Pressly.
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| Paul M. Pressly. Credit: Kent Nessel. |
Glenn T. Eskew, author of JOHNNY MERCER, spoke on Savannah native and songwriter, Johnny Mercer. Georgia poet laureate and recent Georgia Writers’ Hall of Fame inductee, Judson Mitcham, discussed his poetry, including those featured in A LITTLE SALVATION. Paul M. Pressly, author of ON THE RIM OF THE CARIBBEAN, discussed Georgia’s colonial past and relationship to the Caribbean.
Digital Journal has a nice write-up of the festival, as well as photos of many of the authors. Here is one with Glenn T. Eskew:
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| Authors Glenn T. Eskew and John McMillian at Savannah Book Festival. Savannah, Ga. 2/15/14. Credit: Kay Mathews. |
In a news release about the publication of MY DEAR BOY, the University of Kansas news service interviews John Edgar Tidwell about Langston Hughes' relationship with his mother, Carrie.
Hughes had a complex relationship with his parents, even to the point where a conflict between becoming a writer and an everyday working man created a major tension in his life. Hughes’ first novel, “Not without Laughter,” makes use of the tension over money and other family issues found in Carrie Hughes’ letters. The mother character Annjee Rodgers declares that her teenage son Sandy, having reached the age of 16 years, is now old enough to help her by earning money.
“This example helps to affirm our argument that instead of writing her letters to express his anger and disappointment,” Tidwell said, “this and other pieces show him working out his own frustration with his mother via art.”
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| Dr. Louis W. Sullivan discussing his book, BREAKING GROUND, at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library on February 27. |
MH: What are your thoughts on political opposition to the Affordable Health Act?
Sullivan: It's unfortunate that there are politics around healthcare. There are two things that in my view should not be political—having a strong education system for our young people and health.
A healthier population is a more productive population. So I really wish that people would not view health in a political grid. We need to be able to make decisions based on what is needed from a scientific perspective and a medical perspective. I would argue for lowering the political rhetoric here. Access to healthcare should not be something that is subject to political whims.
Jamil Zainaldin gives Dr. Louis W. Sullivan a shout-out in his column for the Saporta Report. This week's column focuses on true leadership and names Sullivan as one of several notable leaders in Georgia.
Dr. Sullivan will give a talk on BREAKING GROUND at Newseum on March 30, 2014. The talk will be taped at the Knight TV Studio at 2:30pm. The program is free with regular paid admission. Seating is on a space-available basis. A book signing will follow the talk. More information about the event is available here. The Newseum is located between the U.S. Capitol and the White House and just one block from the National Mall in Washington, DC.
The Historian said that ALMOST FREE by Eva Sheppard Wolf "provides a timely analysis of the nature of race in antebellum America" and recommends it for "survey courses in the US and African American history" and for any "scholar of antebellum America.”In a recent review, Ecozon@ says that THE BIOREGIONAL IMAGINATION, edited by Tom Lynch, Cheryll Glotfelty, and Karla Armbrustet, is an "important book which recognizes the efficacy of place-based thinking in the context of the global, and offers its audience a new starting point for active and responsible engagement with their own literary traditions and bioregional territories."
In her latest childhood studies op-ed for Salon, Anna Mae Duane, author of SUFFERING CHILDHOOD IN EARLY AMERICA, examines why the "House of Cards" character, Frank Underwood, "despises" children.
Congratulations to Jingle Davis, Ben Galland, and Glenn T. Eskew! Their books, ISLAND TIME and JOHNNY MERCER, have been nominated for the 50th Annual Georgia Author of the Year Awards. The winners will be announced on June 7. The full list of nominees can be found here.
