Pulitzer-Prize winner John Archibald was featured on Author Spotlight discussing his powerful memoir of the good, the bad and the ugly of the words his father, a Methodist minister spoke from the pulpit during the Civil Rights struggle in the South.
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Author Videos
Welcome! We realize that since we have customers in all fifty states and around the world, many of you never have the opportunity of meeting the authors who sign your books.
We are beginning to dig into our archives to give you a chance to see and hear these wonderful writers and share our events. We will also be more diligent in our efforts to preserve future visits, so come back often and see our newest guests.
Although Prince of Frogtown was not to be published for several months, the overflow throng was treated to a preview reading from the author while he spoke of his other titles. Rick Bragg is one of America’s biggest drawing speakers.
Pulitzer-Prize winner Rick Bragg shares details of his poignant book at the very place where he comes from.
Pulitzer-Prize winner Rick Bragg gives a preview of his upcoming book about his mother's cooking.
Click Here to watch Rick Bragg speak about Ava's Man
Monte Burke, one of the nation's most respected sports writers shares his expertise in the amazing world of fly-fishing for Tarpon. This Author Spotlight interview was conducted remotely from Monte Burke's home in Brooklyn.
The popular documentarian addressed a standing-room-only crowd, after being introduced by his music director, our own Bobby Horton.
From Patti Callahan, the bestselling author of Becoming Mrs. Lewis, comes another enchanting story that pulls back the curtain on the early life of C. S. Lewis.
Best-selling author Patti Callahan talks about her fascinating fictionalized account of the sinking of an "unsinkable" luxury sailing ship almost two hundred years ago - and the salvage operation that brought up a fortune in treasures.
The King of Southern fiction had a couple of other kings with him. America’s King of Memoir, Rick Bragg and Cassandra King (Pat’s novelist wife) joined him on stage for a fine evening of literary entertainment.
The benefit for local NPR station WBHM not only held a capacity number of people, but there were many at the door offering huge prices to induce patrons to sell their seats. Imagine, scalping tickets to listen to authors!
Pat Conroy's last words, A Lowcountry Heart include a beautiful introduction by his widow, the novelist Cassandra King and a heartfelt homage by his friend, Pulitzer Prize winner Rick Bragg. The presentation includes very personal anecdotes that only these two could share.
Acclaimed journalist Dennis Covington examines how faith and violence shape our world.
From the nationally bestselling author of The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls comes a story of 1950s Texas socialites and the one irresistible, controversial woman at the bright, hot center of it all.
A sharp, funny, delightfully unhinged collection of stories set in the dark world of domesticity, American Housewife features murderous ladies who lunch, celebrity treasure hunters, and the best bra fitter south of the Mason Dixon line.
Beth Ann Fennelly reads from Heating & Cooling: 52 Micro Memoirs, a genre-defying glimpse into a richly lived life, combining the compression of poetry with the truth-telling of nonfiction into one heartfelt, celebratory book.
As is the case with every Fannie Flagg event we hold at The Virginia Samford Theater, the SOLD OUT sign was beaming brightly as the Honorable Mayor William Bell presented Fannie with the key to the city. She then held the audience in the palm of her hand with tummy-hurting one-liners and poignant memories.
From the author of the “lyrical and compelling” (USA Today) novel A Good American comes a powerful story of two friends and the unintended consequences of friendship, loss, and hope.
John Grisham, one of the world's great storytellers gives details of the genesis of his dynamic new book. He also shares his personal basketball connections.
Celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Academy Award-winning movie, Winston Groom entertains the crowd by giving the inside scoop on very special adventures of Forrest Gump.
The night also announced to the attendees of the WBHM 90.3 FM benefit evening, our exclusive publication of the commemorative editions in hardback and the signed, limited, numbered slipcase treasure.
Click Here to watch Anthony Ray Hinton speak about The Sun Does Shine
International best selling Khaled Hosseini entertained a full house with inside stories about his life and the writing of his powerful trio And the Mountains Echoes, Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns.
Critically acclaimed author David Joy, whose debut, Where All Light Tends to Go, was hailed as “a savagely moving novel that will likely become an important addition to the great body of Southern literature” (The Huffington Post), returns to the mountains of North Carolina with a powerful story about the inescapable weight of the past.
New York Times #1 bestseller Jan Karon absolutely wowed a packed house at the Cathedral Church of the Advent, telling her passionate fans inside stories of all her Mitford books, and especially her newest, Somewhere Safe with Somebody Good.
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Bookman’s Tale comes a new novel about an obsessive bibliophile’s quest through time to discover a missing manuscript, the unknown history of an English Cathedral, and the secret of the Holy Grail.
National Book Award winner James McBride goes in search of the “real” James Brown after receiving a tip that promises to uncover the man behind the myth. His surprising journey illuminates not only our understanding of this immensely troubled, misunderstood, and complicated soul genius but the ways in which our cultural heritage has been shaped by Brown’s legacy.
National Book Award winner James McBride goes in search of the “real” James Brown after receiving a tip that promises to uncover the man behind the myth. His surprising journey illuminates not only our understanding of this immensely troubled, misunderstood, and complicated soul genius but the ways in which our cultural heritage has been shaped by Brown’s legacy.
Robert McCammon launches his newest work and gives the audience the inside scoop.
Robert McCammon discusses Cardinal Black, the latest in the Matthew Corbett series, at the premiere event at The Alabama Booksmith.
Pulitzer Prize winner and #1 New York Times bestselling author Jon Meacham discusses his sweeping yet intimate biography of George H. W. Bush - Destiny and Power - with Bookmark's Don Noble.
Click Here to watch Marja Mills speak about The Mockingbird Next Door
Click Here to watch Jim Noles speak about A Pocketful of History
Author Spotlight viewers are treated to the "real" history of the statues erected to Nathan Bedford Forrest and other Confederates.
Click Here to watch George Packer speak about Blood of the Liberals
Award-winning author Gin Phillips tells how she used the real-life trials and tribulations of a 1970's female attorney, and a few personal reflections to create an accurate and powerful insight into the difficulties facing distaff lawyers.
Anne Rice joins Don Noble to talk about her book Christ The Lord.
In his long-awaited first novel, American master George Saunders delivers his most original, transcendent, and moving work yet. Unfolding in a graveyard over the course of a single night, narrated by a dazzling chorus of voices, Lincoln in the Bardo is a literary experience unlike any other.
Booker Award winning author George Saunders shared the stage with five Alabama writers (Patti Callahan, Lanier Isom, Don Keith, Kerry Madden, and Robert McCammon) to read parts of his astounding new novel.
Charles Shields discusses his extensively revised and updated edition of the bestselling biography of Harper Lee, reframed from the perspective of the recent publication of Lee's Go Set a Watchman
For the inimitable Lee Smith, place is paramount. For forty-five years, her fiction has lived and breathed with the rhythms and people of the Appalachian South. But never before has she written her own story.
The first tour event away from the author’s home town includes Academy Award winner Octavia Spencer reading the maids’ dialogue and Ms. Stockett bringing sound to the words of the white housewives. A standing-room-only crowd can brag that they knew this would be a blockbuster!
T.K. Thorne is the award-winning author of five books and former Captain on the Birmingham police force. She used inside information, masterful research skills, and her writing expertise to pay tribute to the white citizens who spoke up and acted up against racial injustice during the early days of the Civil Rights Movement.
Our Author Spotlight virtual interview allowed Ian Toll, the dean of naval warfare writers, to expound the history preceding, during and after.
We are proud to interview the only person to have been to the bottom of every ocean on earth. Victor Vescovo may be the most interesting man on the planet.
Kevin Wilson’s anticipated follow-up to The Family Fang, Perfect Little World is a warm-hearted and emotional story about a young woman charting her own course.
On the exact date of the 50th anniversary of the publication of To Kill a Mockingbird, Kathryn Tucker Windham shares personal stories of her friend Harper Lee. The occasion was a benefit for The Alabama Humanities Foundation that brought in over $5,000.