pageturner
Page Turner is a magazine for Georgia’s readers and writers and any Georgiaphiles who enjoy learning about our state’s literary offerings, heritage, and events.
Editor’s Note
Each quarter, a team of experienced, award-winning writers will bring you suggested readings from the Reader’s Corner, tips and helpful advice from the Writer’s Corner and Writer’s Toolbox, and a feature on notable Georgia writers. For children, their educators and guardians, and anyone working on children’s books, we will feature four Children’s Books each quarter with suggested activities in Children’s Corner. Spotlight on Book Clubs will share book club stories from across our state, and maybe inspire you to start one! These articles will be staples of each issue, but others will pop up from time to time, so don’t miss out each quarter.
Brought to you by:
Georgia Writers Museum celebrates the state’s rich literary history, promotes its contemporary writers, educates readers and writers of all ages, and connects people to the literary arts of Georgia.
Atlanta Writers Club teaches the craft and business of writing, supports the local literary community, and encourages more reading by the public.
MelissaSwindell
Executive Director
MeettheTeam!
ChipBell
ManagingEditor,PageTurner
Author&KeynoteSpeaker
Chip is a renowned keynote speaker and author of several bestselling, awardwinningbooks.HehasappearedliveonCNBC,FoxBusiness,andCNN,andhis work has been featured in Fortune, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, USA Today, Entrepreneur,Inc.Magazine,andHarvardBusinessReview.
GeorgeWeinstein
Writer,PageTurner
ExecutiveDirector,AtlantaWritersClub
Georgeisanaward-winningauthor,two-timePresidentofAtlantaWritersClub, and since 2008, he has directed the twice-yearly Atlanta Writers Conference, bringing in acquisitions editors and literary agents to help AWC members understandthebusinessofwritingandachievetheirdreamsofpublication.
KimConrey
Writer,PageTurner
Kim is the author of the sci-fi romance series, Ares Ascending, and the urban fantasy, Nicholas Eternal She was the 2023 Georgia Author of the Year for Romance.
BettyLiedtke
WriterandCopyEditor,PageTurner
FormerColumnist,Chanhassen(MN)Villager
Award-winningcolumnistBettyLiedtkecurrentlyservesasSecretaryofGeorgia WritersMuseum,andisa20-yearveteranofToastmastersInternationalandan activememberofPathwaystoHope—AfricaandtheGreensboroWritersGuild.
JimAuchmutey
Writer,PageTurner
FormerReporter,AtlantaJournal-Constitution
Jim spent almost 30 years as a writer and editor for the AJC, specializing in storiesabouttheSouthanditshistoryandculture.HewastwicenamedtheCox Newspapers chain’s Writer of the Year, and was honored by the Robert F. KennedyJournalismAwardsandtheAssociatedPress.
RogerJohns
Writer,PageTurner
Rogerisaformercorporatelawyer,retiredcollegeprofessor,theauthorofthe Wallace Hartman Mysteries, and the 2018 Georgia Author of the Year for Mystery/Detective.
Chip and I invite you to:
is a magazine for Georgia’s Georgiaphiles who enjoy learning about our state’s literary offerings, heritage, and events.
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Writer’s Corner
“Go Fourth (of July) and Write!”
Writer’s Toolbox
“Why I Write” by Cynthia Shearer
Igniting Imagination by Denene Millner
If You Only Have an Hour
Look Ahead
Page Turner Celebrates
Business of Authoring
Finding a Brave Publisher
SPOTLIGHT: Georgia 250
Steffen Thomas: Becoming an American
Eat Your Words 250 Celebrations
SPOTLIGHT: Georgia Book Club
The History Book Club
Reader’s Corner
Sing Down the Moon by Robert Gwaltney
Profile of a New Georgia Writer Julia Castanet
SPOTLIGHT:
Indie Bookstore
THREE TIPS FOR HOLIDAY WRITING
What’s your favorite holiday?
(Bonus points if it’s the 4 of July!)
Think of a special memory connected with this holiday. th
Write about the thoughts, feelings, and emotions the memory evokes in you.
Write about the differences between then and now. 2 TIP1 3
How did you/your family celebrate or honor this holiday when you were a child? How do you celebrate it today?
“GO FOURTH AND WRITE!”
(OF JULY)
What is the meaning and purpose of this holiday?
Write about its significance to you personally, culturally, historically, religiously, or in any other way
byBettyLiedtke
Holidays can be a writer’s best friend. Not because of a day off from work and some extra hours of writing time, but because of the wide variety and amount of rich writingmaterialtheyprovide.
The 4 of July offers some of the best possibilities. I have many memories of Independence Day activities throughout the years, and I’ll bet you do, too. Think of all the stories, poems, and reflections hiding in those memories of the picnics and barbecues, parades and fireworksyou’veattended!
My earliest memory of the 4 of July—I think I was three or four years old—is of how excited I was about attending ourtown’sfireworksdisplay,andendingupsittinginthe
back seat of our car with my hands over my ears because the noise scared me. I remember my mom coming and sitting in the car with me, her arm around my shoulders, until the fireworks were over.
I’ve watched parades, marched in parades, and ridden in antique autos in 4 of July parades, and each experience evokes different memories and can inspire different types of writing. My all-time favorite 4 of July story is about meeting my husband on a blind date a week before the 4 of July in the Bicentennial year of 1976. I usually add that there were fireworks! But I don’t really like telling that story anymore, because in this Semiquincentennial year (which I had to look up to know what it’s called) I’m forced to confront the fact that 50 years have gone by since then! th th th
As we celebrate America250, I hope you’ll take some time, in the midst of all the fun and festivities, to reflect on everything the 4 of July holiday has meant to you through the years. And definitely: take some time to write about it! ★ th
Betty Liedtke is a writer, proofreader, copy editor, and the author of Find Your Buried Treasure Nuggets Mined from Everyday Life
“WhyIWrite”
Why do I write, you ask.
True confession: I’m not entirely sure. But I do know it feels like asserting my belonging to the human fold by sharing a mystery with someone.
When I was seventeen, I had the luxury of spending a whole day with my boyfriend’s grandmother, a diminutive force of nature from the wiregrass country in South Georgia Her education was more informed by the Great Depression than by the quantum physics of her descendants. She took me fishing at her pond, showed me how she cleaned and cooked bream and crappie. She showed me her vegetable garden, her flowers, her quilts. She gave me a story, and I’ve carried it with me all these years
My boyfriend’s father had been precariously ill as an infant, down there in the wiregrass country, and she had put him in a little cardboard box on top of the Philco radio whenever Pentecostal faith healer Oral Roberts was broadcasting all the way from Oklahoma. She nicknamed her baby “Philco.” He not only survived, he became a formidable businessman.
I went home that day a little sunburned, a little stunned. I scribbled notes, lost them along my way. I think of her whenever people talk about the efficacy of hope or the quantum behavior of particles at great distances Decades later, at seventy, I’m still not wise enough to write that story.
Here’s another. A woman in my hometown, fiercely solitary, financially precarious and getting on in years, but she could work in the fields just like a man. She was the last survivor in her family’s white carpenter gothic house facing the railroad tracks. Her people had emigrated as Irish railroad workers, and the old country lingered on her tongue, like “mither” for “mother.” Her hollyhocks were like a red cantata just behind her scalloped wire fence which held a big railroad rock that she would use to weight her payments to the paper boy. Others would leave money anonymously under it in the dark of night, to help ease her life.
...thiswomanshowedmeher quilts,flippingthroughthem asyouwouldabook,reciting thepoetryofnames:lady’s fan,drunkard’spath, weddingring,logcabin.
My mother once sent me to take some books to her; this woman showed me her quilts, flipping through them as you would a book, reciting the poetry of names: lady’s fan, drunkard’s path, wedding ring, log cabin. The fabrics were really elegant, uncommon for quilts. I described this to my aunt later. She could remember, in the 1930s, seeing with a child’s wonder the flash of diamonds as this woman dialed the combination on the brass post office box of a prominent businessman she worked for. She was, my aunt said, always dressed in the most elegant pongees and poplins, silks and jacquards, taffetas and chiffons, crepes and georgettes. My aunt would cock her eyebrows at me to see if I was connecting the dots.
Here, take these mysteries. They belong to you.★
Cynthia Shearer is an American novelist best known for The Wonder Book of the Air and The Celestial Jukebox, southern literature inspired by her experiences growing up in Georgia and Mississippi She is a former curator of William Faulkner’s Oxford home, Rowan Oak, and a retiree from Texas Christian University, where she now teaches as an adjunct faculty for the English Department She was inducted into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame in 2018
G G
eorgia Douglas Johnson was born in Atlanta on September 10, 1877 She became one of the most well-known Black female poets and playwrights of her time
DISTINGUISHEDGEORGIA WRITERS’BIRTHDAYS
Georgia Georgia Douglas Douglas Johnson Johnson
Known for writing most about love and womanhood, she published works that touched many and were featured in the most widely read Black publications of the twentieth century. In addition to being an active participant in the New Negro Movement that emerged from the Harlem Renaissance, her Washington, D C home became the gathering place for other members of the Black literary world to connect and create. Johnson accepted an honorary doctorate in literature from Atlanta University in 1965, and in 2010 she was inducted posthumously into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame Johnson wrote 200 poems, 28 plays, and 31 short stories. She was given a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2021 by the Georgia Writers Association.
September 10, 1880
Poet and Playwright
The Heart of a Woman
Bronze: A Book of Verse And Yet They Paused (Play)
Jul1 WalterWhite (1893) TheFireintheFlint, AManCalledWhite
Jul2 A.E.Stallings (1968) Like,Olives, Hapax
Jul 17 OliveAnnBurns (1924) ColdSassyTree, LeavingColdSassy
Aug14 AlfredCorn (1943)
Stake:SelectedPoems,Unions
Aug16 BillShipp (1933)
MurderatBroadRiver Bridge
Aug26 CarolineMiller (1903)
LambinHis Bosom,Lebanon
Sept16 JamesA.McPherson (1943)
ElbowRoom,HueandCry:Stories
Sept17 ByronHerbertReece (1917)
BowDowninJericho,Bettera Dinner of Herbs
IGNITING IMAGINATION PEP TALKS FOR WRITERS
And there is the rustle of the leaves across the great water oaks and the cardinals and squirrels rippin’ and runnin’ and doing their dance, and the fescue and the blueberry bushes pushing up, up, up toward all that blue, and beyond that… the sun. All that life just moving, and then there is the still. That is where you find it—the quiet and the clearing. The calm that invites in the characters, their stories. Their questions and choices and emotions and vulnerabilities. There, in the still, you find the belly of that thing you’re creating, filled with the nuance and texture that grows when the world—your world—gets quiet for a spell. In that still, we discover the possibilities and explore them on the page. Looks like you’re just sitting there in the sun, staring at all that life. Meanwhile, you’re writing a whole world in the vision of your mind.
Denene Millner is an author, editor, television and podcast host, and journalist. She has authored more than 30 books, including six New York Times bestsellers She is the creator and director of Denene Millner Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, and MyBrownBaby com, a critically acclaimed blog that examines the intersection of parenting and race She won the 2025 Townsend Prize for Fiction
LookAhead. LookAhead.
byKimConrey&RogerJohns byKimConrey&RogerJohns
July 4, 2026 will be a bigtime celebration for our nation’s 250 birthday. And even if it doesn’t relate to your book, you can still tie your marketing in with this and other holidays. For the big 250, decorate social media or newsletter with: “As we celebrate our country’s freedom, we also celebrate our freedom of expression as authors and your freedom to access great stories!” Selfpublished authors can announce holiday sales. Traditionally published authors, with no pricing ability, can enhance posts with flags and fireworks to spark the connection between independence and reading th
For other holidays and big-event days, ask whether they’ll help or hurt sales. Web browsing and foot traffic for in-store events can suffer when people are glued to their televisions. Think Super Bowl, Final Four, or World Series. Major elections days, release dates for highly anticipated movies, and the start/finish of the school year, can also be marketing challenges Likewise, for the week between Christmas and New Year, when people are more likely to return things than to buy more.
Kim Conrey is the author of the scifi romance series, Ares Ascending, and the urban fantasy, Nicholas Eternal. She was the 2023 Georgia Author of the Year for Romance.
However, from Black Friday to Christmas Eve, when retail traffic is high and people are in a buying mood, in-store events can be profitable But these days are highly sought after by authors, so approach venues early. Merchant appreciation days are also good for in-store appearances, because of high foot traffic. Chambers of Commerce, merchants’ associations, and local publications often publish the dates for such events
Spring break and summer vacation may also be marketing gold. If you’ve written a beach read, seasonal online and newsletter marketing, and instore events in beach town bookstores and gift shops can be worthwhile
The Take-Aways: The calendar can be your friend, or not. Look ahead. Consider how holidays and big events will affect your marketing. Plan early.
Roger Johns is a former corporate lawyer, retired college professor, the author of the Wallace Hartman Mysteries, and the 2018 Georgia Author of the Year for Mystery / Detective
The Smithsonian Institution exhibit Voices and Votes: Democracy in America packed up and migrated from Eatonton to its new temporary home on its 6-site journey through Georgia during 2026. However, the pride in America and democracy it fostered has remained as we continue to celebrate the 250 birthday of America. Thanks to the many volunteers who gave thousands of hours to make it successful Thanks to the many sponsors who demonstrated their commitment to the project through their generous donations. We hope these photos leave you proud.
th
CELEBRATE!
Page Turner is excited to announce winners for the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame, Bram Stoker Awards, and Georgia Author of the Year awards!
Three new honorees have been inducted into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame.
Alice Friman has taught at several universities and helped to found the Indiana Writers' Center. She is Professor Emerita at the University of Indianapolis, and was poet-in-residence at Georgia College & State University. Raised in New York City, she is a graduate of Brooklyn College and holds a master’s degree from Butler University and an honorary doctorate from the University of Indianapolis. Friman has won two Pushcart Prizes, the Ekphrasis Prize for Poetry, and the Georgia Author of the Year Award for Poetry.
Charlie Smith is a poet and novelist who was born in Moultrie, Georgia. Smith received a B.A. in English and philosophy from Duke University and an MFA from the University of Iowa Writers Workshop in 1983. He has been a newspaper writer and editor, businessman, farmer, and laborer. He also taught creative writing and lectured at Princeton University. He has won numerous honors and awards, including the Aga Khan Prize, the National Poetry Series Award, and the Great Lakes New Poets Award.
Shay Youngblood was an American playwright, author of short stories and novels, artist, and educator. Her works explored themes of identity, community, and resilience, giving voice to generations of African American women. Born in Columbus, Georgia, she earned a B.A. degree in mass communication from Clark Atlanta University. When her play, Shakin’ the Mess Outta Misery (1994), was optioned by Sidney Poitier for a film, she used the money to attend Brown University, where she earned her MFA in Creative Writing in 1993.
Bram Stoker Award
Nationally, Michael Wehunt and his book, The October Film Haunt (published by St. Martin’s Press), won the 2026 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel. The award is given each year by the Horror Writers Association. Wehunt’s previous work has been a finalist for the Shirley Jackson Award and shortlisted for the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts' Crawford Award. Wehunt grew up in North Georgia and now lives in Atlanta.
BIOGRAPHY
PAGE TURNER CELEBRATES
Stewarded by the Georgia Writers Association, Georgia Author of the Year Awards celebrates the best literature by Georgia writers.
I am a Georgia Girl: The Life of Lucille Selig Frank by Ann Hite
CHILDREN’S BOOK
When Alexander Graced the Table by Denene Millner and Alexander Smalls, illustrated by Frank Morrison
DETECTIVE/MYSTERY
Revenge by Danielle Singleton
FIRST NOVEL
Ibis by Justin Haynes
HISTORY
Somewhere Toward Freedom: Sherman's March and the Story of America's Largest Emancipation by Bennett Parten
HORROR
The October Film Haunt by Michael Wehunt
INSPIRATIONAL
Lessons in Hope: A New Era for Maasai Women in Tanzania by Juliet Cutler
LITERARY NOVEL
Will There Ever Be Another You by Patricia Lockwood
MEMOIR
Momma May be Mad by Kerry Neville
POETRY COLLECTION
All Things In Common by Rupert Fike
ROMANCE
Once Upon a Time in Dollywood by Ashley Jordan
SCIENCE FICTION/FANTASY
North by Ann Michelle Harris
SPECIALTY
35 Natural Wonders of Georgia to See Before You Die by Ann Litrel & Charles Seabrook
YOUNG ADULT
Needy Little Things by Channelle Desamours
LITERARY DUAL VISION
A collaboration between Georgia Writers Museum and The Artisans Village Important Dates
AUTHOR SUBMISSIONS: (CLOSED)
ARTISTS SELECT SUBMISSIONS AND CREATE WORKS: JUNE 1 – JULY 28
OPENING RECEPTION AT TAV: THURSDAY, AUGUST 6 FROM 5 – 7:30 PM
READING & REVEAL AT GWM: FRIDAY, AUGUST 14
For more information, scan here:
READING & REVEAL AT BARREL 118: SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 19
FindingaBravePublisher
A quick review of interviews with authors who write controversial books always includes their search for a publishing partner willing to “take a risk ” In an era of “safe” bets with close attention to revenue over influence, courageous publishing can be as rare as frog hair. Here are a few examples.
While the South was in an uproar over Lillian Smith’s Strange Fruit on interracial relationships, her publisher, Reynal and Hitchcock, successfully appealed to Eleanor Roosevelt when the U.S. Post Office tried to shut down distribution. When Raymond Andrews’ unfiltered truth about Black life in Appalachee Red was released, Dial Press championed his book by helping him win the James Baldwin Prize. J.B. Lippincott knew they would face a major backlash when they released Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird in 1960 It won a Pulitzer Prize
by ChipBell
To select a publisher with backbone, an author must look past the glossy catalog and peer into the soul of their previous risks. Does this publisher champion voices that make the comfortable uneasy? Here are threefeaturesofabravepublishingpartner:
PASSIONOVERPEDIGREE
Look for a publisher who talks more about the “magic” of your message than the mechanics of the margin. Courageous publishers are fueled by a “value-added” obsession—they want to change the reader, not just theirbottomline.
“NO-PANIC”POLICY
Seek a publisher that views a controversial chapter not as a liability, but as a “moment of truth.” They don’twaterdownthewhiskey;theytrustthekick.
COLLABORATIVESPIRIT
A brave publisher doesn’t dictate from a pedestal. Instead, they invite you into a partnership, where your vision is respected, and their bravery acts as the wind beneathyourcreativewings.
True courage in the publishing world is the commitment to a “distinctive” path rather than a “standard” one. When you find a publisher who values a bold idea more than the safety of a predictable one, you haven’t just found a book printer—you’ve found a comrade-in-arms. Bottom line, choose the one who treats your book like a revolution, not just a transaction.
Chip R. Bell is an awardwinning, bestselling author and serves on the board of Georgia Writers Museum.
DistinguishedGAWriters DistinguishedGAWriters Go to College
WORD BANK
ANSWERS ON PAGE 59.
4 RECEIVED AN HONORARY DOCTORATE FROM EMORY UNIVERSITY
5 TAUGHT AT EMORY UNIVERSITY AND NOW AT BOSTON UNIVERSITY
7 COMPLETED A PhD FROM HARVARD UNIVERSITY
8 LECTURED AT YALE, WELLESLEY, AND UC BERKELEY
9 GRADUATED FROM FISK UNIVERSITY AND AMERICAN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
10 ATTENDED NYU, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN, AND UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
1 STUDIED MUSIC AT THE PEABODY CONSERVATORY
2 TAUGHT ENGLISH AT JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
3 ATTENDED MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
6 ATTENDED GEORGIA SOUTHWESTERN AND GEORGIA TECH
G E O R G I A ’ S S TAR - S PAN G L E D
W R I T E R S
Southern poet Sidney Lanier played a crucial role in unifying America during the 1876 Centennial. Selected to write the “Centennial Meditation of Columbia” for the Exposition’s grand opening, his collaboration with composer Dudley Buck served as a powerful gesture of national reconciliation When the cantata was performed by a i 800-voice chorus and a 150-piece orchestra, the crowd was y captivated.
Alice Walker didn’t just write novels; she curated the very soul of freedom and justice By giving a thunderous voice to Black women in The Color Purple (1982), she expanded the democratic “we” to include those long shoved into the shadows. She taught us that for a democracy to be authentic, it must b very story, especially the ones written in tears and re
The lyrical defiance of Jean Toomer composed a new chapter in American book of democracy Toomer’s Cane (1923) broke the m of how we see race and identity, pushing a rigid America to acknowledge the fluid, complex beauty of its people
SidneyLanier(1842-1881)
AliceWalker(1944-)
JeanToomer (1894-1967)
RaymondAndrews(1934-1991)
The rural grit of Raymond Andrews created this chapter as well. With his Muskhogean County Trilogy, starting with Appalachee Red (1978), painted the Black experience in the South with such vivid, human strokes that you could not help but see the systemic barriers blocking the path to the ballot box
Sometimes, democracy needs a whistleblower Lillian Smith, a white woman in the Jim Crow South, dared to strip away the “polite” veneer of segregation. In her novel Strange Fruit (1944) she forces a nation to see that you cannot have liberty for some and shackles for others. She d d h a house divided by hate cannot stand it can only crumble.
Ha Jin emigrated from China to Georgia His work explores the fragile, precious nature of individual freedom against the backdrop of authoritarianism. With books like A Free Life (2007), his presence in the Georgia literary canon reminds us that democracy is a global yearning, often best articulated by those who know what it’s like to live without it.
We cannot talk about Georgia writers’ impact without the titans of the struggle W.E.B. Du Bois, during his time at Atlanta University, gave us The Souls of a foundational text that demanded the “ i h the education of youth.”
Decades later, John Lewis took those ink-on-paper demands and turned them into “Good Trouble.” His graphic memoir, March (2013), did not just tell us history; it provided a blueprint for every generation on how to protest, persist, and protect the vote
LillianSmith (1897-1966)
Joel Chandler Harris’ Brer Rabbit folktales are both uniquely American and highly controversial. Harris, a white plantation worker, learned the folktales – a blend of folklore from enslaved West Africans and Indigenous Americans –from the men and women enslaved on Turnwold Plantation His recordings of the folktales has sparked a long, necessary dialogue about cultural ownership and representation.
JimmyCarter(1924-2024)
Jimmy Carter used his post-presidential pen to champion human rights and fair elections globally, proving that a leader’s duty to democracy does not end when term limits do. His books, such as Turning Point (1992) and Our Endangered Values (2005), issued a wake-up call to ardently defend what makes democracy special and sustainable
Voices & Votes: Democracy in America
JoelChandlerHarris(18451908)
STEFFENTHOMAS:BECOMINGANAMERICAN
Artist Steffen Thomas was born in Germany in 1906. He was awarded the Master Artist status at the age of 21 while studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. The following year, he paid his own way to the US, enticed by the idea of the American Dream.
His first job in America? He made copies of classical sculptures for the E.F Hutton Estate in Palm Beach, Florida, but when he got a little too creative, he was fired! By 1930, Steffen had settled in Atlanta, where he became known as the “Young Bavarian Sculptor.” His popularity increased along with his commissions, and he met and fell in love with Atlanta’s own Sara Douglass. They married afteronlysixweeksofcourtship.
byCrystalJackson
This whirlwind relationship did not immediately grant him American citizenship. It was the 1930s, and the process for becoming an American was much simpler than it is today. Steffen declared his intention, in an oath to the clerk of court, that he planned to become an American citizen and reside in the US on a permanent basis, and would renounce all allegiance to other nations. After five years of living in the US, he was allowed to petition for citizenship. In addition to documentation, he needed affidavits from two witnesses attesting to his good character Following an investigation, he was granted a hearing before a judge who had the powertoapprove,deny,ordelayfinalcitizenship.
Crystal Jackson is a former therapist turned writer and nonprofit social media maven. She’s the author of the Heart of Madison novels and handles communications for Steffen Thomas Museum of Art
Steffen Thomas’s citizenship became official on June26,1935.
In the exhibit Steffen Thomas: Becoming an American, visitors can view a copy of Steffen’s citizenship papers, see where his citizenship was documented like celebrity news, and even view the flag gifted to him by the Georgia Woman’s Democratic Club. SteffenThomas was proud to be an American. He lived his life and created art guided by the ideals of freedom and equality that heconsideredtobeinnatelyAmerican.
His legacy lives on at Steffen Thomas Museum of Art just outside of Madison, Georgia. VisitTuesday throughSaturdayfrom11amto4pm.
Newspaper clipping of Steffen and Sara Thomas after Thomas’s citizenship ceremony
250Celebrations
byChefBrentMero
For the 250 anniversary of America, there would be nothing more iconic than a hamburger recipe… however, there are so many other unique foods and crops that originated in our country, I wanted to go with something that was more diverse. After all, America is a melting pot of people and ideas, and we strive hard to make everyone and everything fit together in the way that benefits as many people as possible.
Red,WhiteandBlueSpread
As written, this recipe provides a mildtasting spread for crackers, as well as a finishing butter on steaks. By replacing the butter and/or cream cheese with other dairy products (mayonnaise, sour cream, heavy cream, etc.) you can make aiolis and dressings. A pinch of smoked paprika adds an additional note to any combination, as does a dash of your favorite hot sauce. And, of course, any combination can be usedontopofyour4 ofJulyburger! th
Ingredients:
1 stick butter (salted or unsalted)
8-oz. pack of cream cheese
5 oz. of Gorgonzola
d,
1 2
2 tbsp. roasted red peppers (drained and chopped)
¼ tsp. garlic powder
¼ tsp. onion powder
Pinch of black pepper
Softenbutterandcreamcheese by leavingoutonthecounterforatleastan hour.
Putallingredientsinabowl,andwitha glovedhand,mixtogetherbykneadingthe ingredientsintothebutterandcream cheeseuntilwellcombined.
3
Storeandrefrigerateinacovereddish, andsoftenbeforeusing.Alternatively, placethemixtureinthemiddleofapiece ofplasticwrapandshape intoalogand refrigerate.Touse,youcancutroundsoff theloglikepatsofbutter.
THE HISTORY THE HISTORY BOOK CLUB BOOK CLUB
A Setting for Reflection
Count on your public library to find creative ways to make reading fun. Book clubs have always been a forum to explore, discuss, and learn new interpretations of the printed page. As America celebrates its 250 birthday, Page Turner talked with the Fulton County Library’s History Book Club of Northside Library to discover new applications of a familiar subject Here is a bit of our interview with Eric Kennington, who oversees the History Book Club.
th
What is the background of the History Book Club?
When it began a couple of years ago, the theme was the “What If? Time Machine.” We examined the four assassinated presidents and looked at their untimely death and what would have happened if those events had not occurred We have themed our gatherings around Black History Month and Women’s History Month and events like Juneteenth and the American Revolution
What makes your book club unique?
Our book club does not focus on a book, but rather on a subject. We provide books about the subject and allow the participants to choose which book they want to read. The books provided are selected to ensure diverse perspectives for open and friendly discussion on the subject matter. When we meet, we first watch a 45-60-minute video that contains the historically accepted facts about the chosen subject. We then discuss the subject matter, and that is when little nuggets come out based on the book each member has read about the subject matter.
Are there unusual features or surprises that have happened to the book club?
History can be controversial and sometimes can lead to some emotional responses. Even a subject that seems non-controversial can lead to some heated debate. As the librarian in charge, I play the mediator to diffuse the emotion and bring it back to a discussion of the day’s subject when this rare occurrence happens. In the end, the group usually rallies and understands that everyone’s opinion is valued and respected.
Members of the History Book Club
CAROLINE MILLER
by JimAuchmutey
Caroline Miller of Baxley, Georgia, published two novels in her 88 years. The second one, Lebanon, earned disappointing reviews when it came out in 1944. But the first one, Lamb in His Bosom, won the first Pulitzer Prize ever awarded to a Georgia novelist, in 1934
Lamb was one of the great unlikely literary success stories of the years between the world wars. The book’s first edition went through 37 printings, and it was translated into numerous languages The novel was such a sensation that it set off an appetite for Southern tales among New York publishers. One of them, Macmillan, sent an editor to Atlanta scouting for such stories, resulting in the discovery of MargaretMitchell
Lamb in His Bosom was nothing like Gone with the Wind. Though both were set in Georgia during the mid-1800s, Lamb exists far from the world of hoop skirts. It tells the story of a pioneer woman and her family in the South Georgia back country. The main character, Cean, bears 14 children, buries five of them (along with her husband), lives through the Civil War, and survives a panther attack, a venomous snakebite, and a house fire.
Her hard but ultimately redeemed life struck a chord with many readers One of them was Celestine Sibley, the longtime Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist, who wrote: “I think I have loved Lamb in His Bosom most of my life…. My ancestors are more Caroline Miller than Margaret Mitchell characters They too settled in Appling County, not a white column or a slave to their name just ox cart, rough cabin, hard work, and hard living interspersed with suchfunasthey couldmanage.”
Miller was born down the road in Waycross. Interested in writing and drama early on, she married her high school English teacher and moved with him to Baxley, where they had three sons. She loved folklore and genealogy, and spent much of her free time traveling around the countryside, talking with elders and collecting their stories and idiomatic ways of speaking in her notebook Much of that research ended up in Lamb in His Bosom.
Published in 1933, the novel and its direct, simple prose won rave reviews from the beginning. Louis Kronenberger, writing in The New York Times, said it had “a wonderful freshness about it; not simply the freshness of a new writer, but the freshnessof anewworld.”
Lamb in His Bosom changed Miller’s life for better and for worse Her marriage did not survive her literary celebrity. Just two years after she won the Pulitzer, Miller divorced her husband. A year later, she remarried, to a florist and antiques dealer in Waynesville, North Carolina, and had two more children She kept writing for most of the rest of her life but published only one more novel, Lebanon. She wrote several more, but she did not like the way her second one was edited, and the experience left her wary of submitting subsequent manuscripts
Caroline Miller Ray, as she was known by then, died in 1992, just as she was being discovered by a new generation of scholars interested in pioneering female novelists of the South. Around that time, a state historical marker was erected in Baxley to memorialize her She was inducted into the GeorgiaWritersHall of Famein2007.★
Jim Auchmutey is a former writer and editor for The Atlanta JournalConstitution, specializing in stories about the South and its history and culture
T O W N S E N D T O W N S E N D
Every other year a panel of judges awards the Townsend Prize for Fiction to an outstanding novel or short story collection published by a Georgia writer during the past two years. The award is named for Jim Townsend, the founding editor of Atlanta magazine, the associate editor of Atlanta Weekly Magazine (of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution), and an early mentor to such Atlanta writers as Pat Conroy, Terry Kay, William Diehl, and Anne Rivers Siddons. It is co-owned by the Atlanta Writers Club and Georgia Writers Museum.
N S E
Celestine Sibley, Children, My Children
Alice Walker, The Color Purple
Philip Lee Williams, The Heart of a Distant Forest
Mary Hood, And Venus Is Blue
Sara Flanigan, Alice
Charlie Smith, The Lives of the Dead
Ferrol Sams, When All the World Was Young
Pam Durban, The Laughing Place
JoAllen Bradham, Some Personal Papers
Judson Mitcham, The Sweet Everlasting
James Kilgo, Daughter of My People
Ha Jin, The Bridegroom
Terry Kay, The Valley of Light
Judson Mitcham, Sabbath Creek
Renee Dodd, A Cabinet of Wonders
Kathryn Stockett, The Help
Thomas Mullen, The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers
Anthony Winkler, God Carlos
Mary Hood, A Clear View of the Southern Sky
Julia Franks, Over the Plain Houses
Xhenet Aliu, Brass
Sanjena Sathian, Gold Diggers
Denene Millner, One Blood
James Kilgo Townsend Prize Winner, 2000
James Kilgo was a distinguished American author and educator whose work deeply explored the intersections of nature, family, and the spiritual landscape of the American South. Though perhaps less of a household name than some of his contemporaries, Kilgo earned a reputation among critics and readers as a “writer’s writer,” possessed of a keen eye for detail and a profound moral sensibility.
Born in Darlington, South Carolina, Kilgo’s roots in the Lowcountry soil would inform much of his later prose. He attended Wofford College, where he earned his undergraduate degree, before moving on to Tulane University to complete his M.A. and Ph.D. in English literature.
His academic training provided a rigorous foundation for his later creative output, instilling in him a respect for the craft of the essay and the weight of the written word
In 1967, Kilgo joined the faculty of the University of Georgia For over thirty years, he was a beloved professor of English, specializing in American literature and creative writing. He received five Outstanding Honors Professor awards and the Honoratus Award for Excellence in Teaching It was at UGA that he helped foster a vibrant literary community, influencing generations of students with his quiet humility and insistence on clarity and honesty in storytelling.
Kilgo’s literary career was marked by a shift from academic scholarship to deeply personal creative nonfiction and, eventually, fiction. He is perhaps best known for his nature writing and personal essays Deep Enough for Ivorybills (1988) is a collection of essays and is widely considered a masterpiece of the genre. In it, Kilgo explores the hunting and fishing traditions of the South, not merely as sport, but as a means of connecting with the wilderness and understanding one’s heritage Inheritance of Horses (1994) continued his exploration of family and place. It delved into the ancestral stories that shape an individual’s identity. The Blue Wall (1996) captured the rugged beauty of the Southern Blue Ridge Mountains
Kilgo also ventured into fiction with his novel, Daughter of My People (1998), which won the Townsend Prize for Fiction. The novel tackled complex themes of race, family secrets, and the social hierarchies of the early 20 -century South, demonstrating his ability to weave historical research with emotional resonance. The book was also a finalist for the Lillian Smith Award and the Stephen Crane Award. th
Kilgo’s writing is characterized by a “sacramental” view of the world He often found the extraordinary within the ordinary the shimmer of a river, the silence of the woods, or the weight of a family heirloom. His prose was elegant, yet accessible, avoiding the traps of regional caricature Instead, he sought to document the South as a place of both immense beauty and complicated shadows.
James Kilgo passed away in 2002 after a battle with cancer. His final book, Colors of Africa (2002), was published posthumously. He left behind a legacy as a quintessential Southern humanist a man who believed that by looking closely at the land and our history, we might better understand our souls.
Today, his work remains a touchstone for those interested in the literature of the natural world and the enduring power of Southern storytelling He was posthumously inducted into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame in 2011.
DAUGHTEROFMYPEOPLE
TOWNSENDPRIZE-WINNINGBOOK
Set in the post-Civil War South of 1940s Georgia, James Kilgo’s Daughter of My People is a lyrical and haunting exploration of family legacy, racial tension, and the weight of the past The narrative follows Hart Bonner, who returns to his family’s ancestral plantation, Holly Hill, to manage the estate following his uncle’s death.
The story centers on a long-buried family secret: the interracial relationship between Hart’s great-uncle, T. Rodney Bonner, and a Black woman named Jennie. This union produced a daughter, and as Hart delves into the family archives and local oral histories, he is forced to confront the complexities of bloodlines that transcend the rigid color lines of the Jim Crow South.★
SINGDOWNTHEMOON
Robert Gwaltney’s Sing Down the Moon, the followup to his delightfully wicked debut, The Cicada Tree, is a graceful leap in the literary direction in the best way possible. A novel that reads like Capote’s Other Voices, Other Rooms or Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Sing Down the Moon tackles massive ideas like legacy, addiction, escape, and identity, imbuing the journey with eclectic characters that are both surreal and relatable, in a lavishly imagined setting that, like the characters, is both otherworldly and yet familiar in its deep, authentic Southernness.
It is the perfect vehicle for the coming-of-age theme that permeates the work Adolescence is dreamlike even without the vivid imagination of a gifted writer, and Gwaltney captures the strange, imbalanced feeling of trying to figure out where you are vs. where you want to be. The atmosphere is so richly imagined and described that to put the book down requires a person to get their bearings
Protagonist Leontyne Skye holds the reader’s hand, guiding them through a maze of zigs and zags under the gaze of the Forever Moon. Nothing is quite what it seems though Leontyne’s sincerity keeps the reader with at least one foot solidly on the ground Gwaltney is entirely successful in his subtle shifts between themes that are realistic and tethered to the everyday and the trance-like fever-dream setting of the barrier island, Good Hope, where the story takes place
REGISTERTODAY!
MEETTHEAUTHOR AUGUST4
Intentionally disorienting from the outset, Sing Down the Moon calls the reader to come exploring rather than to be purely entertained though entertaining it is! It’s a tapestry into which characters like the splendidly dramatic Avery Longwood, “‘Darling birds darling birds,’ Avery weeps from beneath his mama’s old wedding veil, holding a parasol of yellowing white silk above his head He is not so overcome by our recent Armageddon of birds he has lost the gumption to costume himself as Miss Havisham for my reading of Great Expectations Not so distraught he could not manage to wrap himself about the shoulders in a white lace tablecloth to become the jilted bride,” Willadeene the haint with flowers in her hair, “From the Up-Up There comes a Willadeene snow A shower of magnolia blossoms and forgetme-nots,” and Hushabye Byrd, nicknamed the Prophetess, to name but a few, are intricately woven No detail is overlooked, no word unimportant, no sentence hollow or trivial
I have no doubt in my mind this book will very soon become required reading in high schools and on college campuses everywhere ★
THEWRITER
Robert Gwaltney works as a nonprofit leader serving children with special needs. Raised in Cairo, Georgia, Gwaltney is a lifelong resident of the South a circumstance that has left an
indelible mark on his voice as a writer His debut novel, The Cicada Tree, received several awards, including Georgia Author of the Year for First Novel and the Somerset Award for Literary Fiction Gwaltney resides in Atlanta, Georgia
REVIEWEDBY
Lo Patrick is a former lawyer and novelist living in Atlanta. Her debut, The Floating Girls, earned a starred review from Publishers Weekly, was a finalist for the Townsend Prize for Fiction, and
was a Reader’s Digest Editor’s Pick She authored The Night the River Wept in 2024, and her most recent book is Fast Boys and Pretty Girls (2025)
Reader Beware
Just as it’s harder than ever for authors to rise above the noise and get noticed by readers, it’s also harder for readers to find books that make them remember why they fell in love with reading in the first place. Here are somepitfallstoavoidonyourjourney:
1. Always judge a book by its cover: If the author’s publisher or the author themself for self-published work couldn’t be bothered to spend the time and resources to create a compelling cover, the contents of the book are suspect Yes, some books with lousy covers are great reads, and some great covers disguise disappointing contents, but they tend tobetheoutliers.
2. Watch for AI-generated content: If the book cover has a high-contrast, plastic look or dreamily blurry images, odd anatomical features, details that don’t fit, and/or text that blends into the background, there’s a good chance artificial intelligence was used instead of human artistry Similarly, if the content lacks a distinctive voice, leans heavily on repetitive words or phrases, uses the same subject-verb-predicate sentence structure ad nauseum, and/or offers inconsistent details (names, settings, etc.)—or the author suddenly is publishing numerous books at the same time or in short order AI might have been used in part or entirely to produce the work(s). Life’s too short to read something writtenwithoutsoul
byGeorgeWeinstein byGeorgeWeinstein
3.Emailsfromfamousauthors: Writers have been getting these scam outreaches for a while, but now book clubs and other reading groups are also starting to get emails made to appear as if they’re from famous authors. These are AI-generated and intended to get the reader to engage with the alleged writer, who will eventually ask for money in one form or another in return for the bogus promise of an actual or online visit. Yes, it’s flattering to get an email that’s apparently from Delia Owens or Jodi Picoult, but trust me, they aren’t at the other end of that email. A scammer trying to take your money is.
Look elsewhere in this issue for my Reader’s Corner column on finding your next great read. Those books are out there by the thousands we just have to avoid the millionsof badchoicestofindthem
George Weinstein is the twiceformer President and current Executive Director of the historic Atlanta Writers Club (AWC), which was founded in 1914
Your Next Great Read
When considering your next great read, look at reviewsthatmentionthefollowing:
1. Characters you’ll vibe with: Look for mentions of characters that readers root for, ones they empathize or at least sympathize with, and/or those who might not be perfect but want to be better. These are the kinds of fictional/actual people you’ll enjoy adventuring with
2. Storylines you care about: Authors love raising the stakes for their characters putting more and more on the line but if you don’t care about those stakes, or if they’re too high to be realistic to you (e.g., “The fate of the entire universe is in her hands”), you won’t enjoy thatjourney.Look forreviewers’
byGeorgeWeinstein byGeorgeWeinstein
comments that mention pacing that kept them turning pages or made them read all night; stakes that resonated with them; twists, turns, and surprises; and satisfying payoffs.
3. Emotions or escapism: The magic of reading fiction and memoirs is the cathartic emotional release we get or the feeling of losing ourselves in the story. Whether through masterful worldbuilding or setups that give you all the feels, look for mentions of relatable emotions or time speeding by while reading for clues that this is a story you’ll love too.
4. Authorial voice: Just as you could listen to some people read the phone book—kids, ask your folks what that was you will find certain authors have a specific written voice that calls to you. The author’s language choices, their stylish use of metaphors and imagery, and the confidence they show in storytelling are all things that many readers reviewing books will mention when talking about their favorite authors. Those writers could become your favorites too.
Your next great read is out there. In fact, there are too many to get to in one lifetime. Just peruse the reviews left by readers who have already gone on those journeys.
GeorgiaWriterQuotes GeorgiaWriterQuotes
EDUCATION IS A PRIVATE MATTER BETWEEN THE PERSON AND THE WORLD OF KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE, AND HAS LITTLE TO DO WITH SCHOOL OR COLLEGE.
I HAVE A DREAM THAT MY FOUR LITTLE CHILDREN WILL ONE DAY LIVE IN A NATION WHERE THEY WILL NOT BE JUDGED BY THE COLOR OF THEIR SKIN, BUT BY THE CONTENT OF THEIR CHARACTER.
TO ME THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS CREATIVE WRITING. IT’S EITHER GOOD WRITING, WHATEVER THE SUBJECT, OR IT’S NOT CREATIVE.
LILLIAN SMITH
JULIACASTANET: AUTHOROFMOMSWHOWORK
What most inspired you to become a published author?
My book is based on real women from my life, including my mother; their examples across my lifetime are what motivated me to take the “manuscript,” an unpublished, handmade poem I had written for one woman, and turn it into a fullfledged,publishedbookfortheworld.
How long have you been working on your new book?
I first wrote my book as a one-off gift to my senior manager who inspired me in 2020. I didn’t have any intentions to publish it until more women heard about my gift and encouraged me to publish it. I didn’t start working on it for publicationuntiltheveryendof2024.
Tellusaboutyourwritingprocess.
I write a lot of corporate-jargon-filled materials for my full-time job, so when I do write more creatively, I like to consult with others, to discuss aloud; that brainstorming-buddy is often, is almost always my Working Mother! I also write exclusively at nighttime; however, I wrote Moms Who Work in a single, daytime sitting on a plane flight home from Seattle to Atlanta.
Julia Castanet is an Atlanta native who works as a Senior Strategy & Transactions Consultant by day. In her spare time, she is a “serial volunteer” dedicated to her local communities. She holds an M.S. degree from Duke and an MBA from INSEAD.
Whoisyourfavoriteauthor and why?
It only feels right to discuss my favorite Children’s Book author growing up. Roald Dahl lured me in throughout my childhood, providing eerily eccentric and intoxicatingly creepy tales that felt thrilling. His books toe the line between being disturbing and being just entertaining enough,togetthroughasachild.
What advice would you give an aspiring author?
You can absolutely do it! Tell yourself that! Please do not let your belief in yourself (or lack thereof) be a reason you don’t pursue your goal. Go for it and let external factors “stop you”— notyourinternalself-doubt,alone.
Whatdo youhaveinmindfor your nextbook?
I would wishfully want my next book’s topic to emerge as organically as Moms Who Work did. I’d be driven to throw myself behind another book if I felt (once again) that there was a real gap in the market with significant demand and an opportunity to celebrate a special group of people. With Moms Who Work, I felt like I had struck gold. I need to find what that would be again.
Your Story Starts Here...
GREENSBORO GREENSBORO
IN-PERSON
1st & 3rd Tuesdays @ 1pm
Lake Oconee Church of Christ,
4700 Carey Station Rd.
Greensboro, GA 30642
ZOOM
Last Tuesdays @ 1pm
The Golden Bough was a mythical branch from Roman mythology (Virgil’s Aeneid) that granted Aeneas passage to another world. It is a fitting metaphor for The Golden Bough Bookstore in Macon that prides itself in having a wizard-like ability to know customers’ wants and needs before they realize it. We caught up with store owner Eric Wakefield to learn more about ways they surprise theircustomers.
What do you consider your bookstore’s most unique feature?
The store is 37 years old. Because of that we have seen a lot, survived a lot, and adapted to a lot. We live every day by the guiding principle that books should be for everyone. We often say that, for our first-time visitors, we only materialize in their lives when they are ready.
What is one feature of your bookstore experiencenootherareabookstoreoffers?
I have been in the book trade for 30+ years. It has given me vast knowledge and larger perspective about the bookstore business. I hope we are long remembered for saving the world through the power of books. Failing that, I hope to make things better in my community by standing up for free expression, literacy, and knowledge, or at the very least being a third spaceforothersworkingtomakeitbetter.
If someone asked your customers to describe their experience with your bookstore, what wordswouldyoumostliketohear?
Some words they commonly mention include “cool,” “well-organized”/“curated,” “a real bookstore,” and my favorite, “better than [insert corporatecompetitor’snamehere].”
What are ways you anticipate your bookstore will change as your customers’ expectations change?
Short term, I plan to add a “libros en español” section to the store Long term, I hope to restore our event space so we can host events again
Golden Bough Bookstore
SPEEDDATINGWITH APUBLISHER
JULY 18 & JULY 19
MULTIPLE SESSIONS
GEORGIA WRITERS MUSEUM
MindyKuhn,PresidentofWarrenPublishing, willanswergeneralquestionsaboutpublishing.
LaceyCope,MarketingDirector,willanswer questionsaboutbookmarketing.
AmyAshby,VicePresidentandEditor-in-Chief, willanswerquestionsabouteditingandreview manuscriptsampleswithauthors
MINDY KUHN
Shrinking Violet
Chronicle Books
March, 2026
56 pages
Grades K-3
by Laurel Snyder
Violet knows what it’s like to be afraid: when you’re afraid, you feel helpless and small. But when Violet is afraid, she doesn’t just feel small―she shrinks! It’s tough to stop feeling frightened when you’re only a few centimeters tall But when Violet’s best friend is in danger, she’ll have to learn to deal with her fear in a new way and save the day in the process.
Shrinking Violet is a beautifully illustrated story about fear and bravery for anyone who has ever felt scared and small. Readers will root for Violet as she finds her voice, stands up for her friend, and, most importantly, discovers the tremendous power of her own inner strength.
Author
Laurel Snyder has written over thirty children’s books, including Orphan Island, Charlie & Mouse, Endlessly Ever After, Swan, and Penny Dreadful.
Snyder grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, but now lives in a little blue house in Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband, two sons (who look a lot like Charlie and Mouse), and a magical cat named Eddie the Smacker
HOUSE OF HARKNESS
by Preeti Chhibber
Calling all witches!
Join Marvel fan-favorites Wanda Maximoff, aka Scarlet Witch, and Agatha Harkness in this spellbinding graphic novel adventure! Sixteen-year-old Wanda Maximoff is eager for her first day at the highly coveted magic school, the House of Harkness, a place bursting with spellbinding secrets, misfits, and mayhem, where Wanda finds herself at odds with the head student and heir to the school, Agatha Harkness. When evil threatens the school, Wanda and Agatha are challenged to put their differences aside to save the day.
Author
Preeti Chhibber is a YA author, speaker, and freelance writer. She also used to work as a publishing professional. She has written for SYFY, Polygon, BookRiot, BookRiot Comics, The Nerds of Color, The Mary Sue, and others. Her first book in her original Spider-Man trilogy, Spider-Man’s Social Dilemma, was released in July 2022, and her Marvel Comics debut in Women of Marvel #1 came out in March. Chhibber also writes the Avengers Assembly series.
Graphix July, 2026
144 pages Grades 3-7
The Genie Game: A Novel
Harry N. Adrams
April, 2026
368 pages
Grades 5-9
A u t h o r
Jordan Ifueko is the New York Times bestselling author of the Raybearer series and the Disney-Marvel comics Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur. She’s a Nebula Award, Ignyte Award, Audie Award, and Hugo Lodestar finalist, and she's been featured in People Magazine, NPR Best Books, NPR Pop Culture Hour, and American Library Association Top Ten. Ifueko writes about magic Black girls who aren’t magic all the time, because honestly, they deserve a vacation
byJordanIfueko
Valentine Adesanya has two missions: 1) become a Fabulous Film Director, and 2) find her missing big sister, Mango She suspects The Trio Trust, a collection of creepy mega-companies that now rule the United States, made Mango disappear. The Trio Trust hosts a glamorous wish-granting competition, rewarding top players with fabulous prizes. The twist? The greedy Trio forbids genies from using magic. Genies must grant wishes using nothing but smarts and elbow grease. To free her sister Mango and escape the Genie Game, Valentine must score more wish-granting points than any other. But how did the Trio Trust get so powerful in the first place? Why is a magical monster stomping through her home city? And why does the Trio Trust seem so afraid of 13-year-old Valentine Adesanya?
THISMUSTBETHEPLACE
Roaring Brook Press
May, 2026
285 pages
Young Adult
Louisa returns to her hometown after her uncle’s death and inherits his gay bar, “The Frisky Cricket,” which she must now save from being demolished by the town’s new football coach. The conflict leads to a romance between Louisa and Aubrey, the coach’s daughter. This Must Be the Place explores themes of found family, grief, queer identity, and community, following Louisa as she navigates her new responsibilities and a complicated relationship, learning about self-acceptance and the messy reality of people and places. The YA book features a relatable protagonist in Louisa, who learns important lessons about her own biases and the multifaceted nature of people. Author Kelly Quindlen lives in Atlanta.
Author byKellyQuindlen
Kelly Quindlen is the bestselling author of the YA novels She Drives Me Crazy (winner of the Volunteer State Book Award), Late to the Party, Her Name in the Sky, and the forthcoming This Must Be the Place (2026) Her books have cumulatively sold over a quarter of a million copies worldwide and been featured in The New York Times, Business Insider, Vulture, and Paste Quindlen graduated from Vanderbilt University with a degree in English Literature and went on to join Teach for America before devoting herself to writing. She enjoys speaking to high school GSAs, PFLAG groups, and all manner of LGBTQ+ positive organizations Quindlen lives in Atlanta with her fiancée and their saucy cat, Peach Marie
Now that you’ve met all of our Page Turner team members, let’s learn a little bit more about them! Each quarter we’ll ask a new question to a few folks on the team--questions about writing, reading, or their creativity in general. Stay tuned for their answers!
“Whatwasitliketopublishyourfirstbook?”
GeorgeWeinstein
Meeting readers, either individually or in book clubs, is what I most enjoy about being a published author Talking to people who have taken the time to read and consider something I’ve written is an honor and a privilege. Their opinions and feedback always remind me of the alchemy that occurs when individuals interpret something I’ve written, finding meanings and connections that I never realized were there.
I always thought that just seeing my name on the cover of an actual book would be what I enjoyed most, especially after all the time and work that went into writing it. And that certainly was a wonderful feeling! But over time, I found that what I enjoyed most were the comments from people who said they were inspired by my book, or they learned something new from it (or a new way of looking at things), or even that it changed their life in some way.
Holding the ‘hot off the press’ copy of my first book was like the first time I held my first pet. This special moment surfaced a feeling of delight for the close of a long wait, relief for the end of the laborious writerewrite-rewrite task, pride for reaching a treasured ambition, and apprehension for the hard work ahead to let the world know about the product of my dreams. Like a child clutching an always-wanted birthday present, I felt impatient to share it with all those who mattered to me.
JimAuchmutey
I am a journalist, and I have always found that I’m happiest when I’m less preoccupied with me and more preoccupied with someone else and their story. Writing a nonfiction narrative book requires you to do that religiously: You disappear into another world. If you bring that world to life successfully, it’s a tremendously satisfying experience. And then when you see your name on the book, well, it’s also about you after all!
Chip Bell
RogerJohns
I enjoy talking to people a lot. Finding out their stories and their pathways through life is fascinating to me, and being a published author has opened the door to many long and interesting exchanges. While millions of books are published every year, being a published author is still a relative rarity among the general population. So, when someone finds out I’m a published mystery and science fiction author, the barriers come down and the questions come thick and fast, all of which keeps the conversation flowing in both directions. It’s been a reliable means of building interpersonal connections.
What I enjoy most about being a published author is knowing that my writing can help others feel less isolated. What I always tell writers when I give a workshop is, ‘There may be thousands of books written on a particular topic or theme, whether fiction or nonfiction, but it will never be written with your unique voice, through your eyes, your experience, and yours may be the book that makes someone finally feel seen and understood.’ For me, it’s the connection that makes this worth doing.
KimConrey
SUMMEREVENTS SUMMEREVENTS
July, August, September 2026
Atlanta Writers Club
Meeting locations vary, please check the website.
July 18
In-person at Lilburn Library with speakers Jess L.M. Anderson and Kait Ballenger
August 15
In-person at GSU-Dunwoody with speakers Denise Cline and Alice Sudlow
September 19
In-person at GSU-Dunwoody with speakers Joseph Earl Thomas and Carla Hoch
Interested in advertising in Page Turner?
Contact Chip Bell at chip@chipbell.com
Georgia Writers Museum
109 S. Jefferson Ave. Eatonton, GA 31024 www.georgiawritersmuseum.org
July 7
Meet the Author: Charles Seabrook & Ann Litrel 35 Natural Wonders of Georgia to See Before You Die
July 16 (Zoom)
Distinguished Writers Book Club Bombingham by Anthony Grooms
July 18 & 19
Writers Workshop: Speed Dating with a Publisher Mindy Kuhn, President of Warren Publishing Lacey Cope, Marketing Director Amy Ashby, Vice President and Editor-in-Chief
August 4
Meet the Author: Robert Gwaltney Sing Down the Moon
August 14
Paint Between the Lines Reading and Reveal
September 1
Meet the Author: Mark Clegg The Crimson and Gold
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Cold Case Investigative Research Institute coldcasefoundation.org
Decatur Book Festival
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Greensboro Writers Guild
Lake Oconee Church of Christ 4700 Carey Station Rd. Greensboro, GA 30642
Little Shop of Stories 133 E. Court Square #A Decatur, GA 30030 (404) 373-6300 littleshopofstories.com
Magic Time Literary Publicity magictimeliterary.com
Nate Hoffelder
The Author Website Guy 13884 Montoclair Dale City, VA 22193 (571) 406-2689 natehoffelder.com
The Atlanta Writers Club atlantawritersclub.org
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The Plaza Arts Center 305 N. Madison Ave. Eatonton, GA 31024 (706) 923-1655 plazacenter.org
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Print & Sign Solutions
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Smith Communications 100 N. Jefferson Ave. Eatonton, GA 31024 (706) 485-3501
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Visit Eatonton 108 W. Marion St. Eatonton, GA 31024 (706) 485-7701 visiteatonton.com
Warren Publishing 295 Herlong Ave., Suite 401, Rock Hill, SC 29732 704-900-0236 warrenpublishing.net
Answers: 4 Across: Harris, 5 Across: Jin, 7 Across: DuBois, 8 Across: Walker, 9 Across: Lewis, 10 Across: Toomer, 1 Down: Smith, 2 Down: Lanier, 3 Down: Andrews, 6 Down: Carter
