Well-known writers and Reinhardt scholars give free public readings during a week-long series in June. Everyone is invited to hear their best work and interact with the authors June 14th – 22nd at 7:30 p.m. in the Hill Freeman Library’s community room. Parking in the “reserved” spaces near the Library is allowed for these events.
The literary events precede Reinhardt’s Etowah Valley Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program commencement. The two-year master’s program includes summer residencies where its students interact with visiting writers through craft talks, workshops, and lectures.
June 14th
Kim Conrey: Conrey received the 2023 Georgia Author of the Year in the romance category and recently published an urban fantasy duology. She serves as vice president of operations for the Atlanta Writers Club. She speaks on book marketing and is a co-columnist of “If You Only Have an Hour: Time-Saving Tips & Tricks for Managing Your Writing Career.”
George Weinstein: An author of eight novels, Weinstein serves as executive director of the Atlanta Writers Club and as director of the Atlanta Writers Conference. With 24 years in the business, he has republished his books and overseen 30 writers’ conferences with nearly 500 agents, publishers, and over 6,500 writers.
June 15th
John Williams: Williams serves as a mentor for students in the Reinhardt University Creative Writing MFA program. He was named Georgia Author of the Year for First Novel in 2003 and recently enjoyed a successful run of a play he co-authored titled Hiram: Becoming Hank. He and songwriter Ken Clark have had several local productions of their three rock’n’roll comedies.
Donna Coffey Little: Dr. Little founded Reinhardt University’s Etowah Valley Low-Residency MFA Program and she serves as its Assistant Director. Her published works include essays, poems, and academic articles, and will soon include a historical novel.
June 16th
Andrea Jurjević: Jurjević is a Croatian poet and book-length literary translator. She authored two poetry collections and a chapbook which won the 2022 Saturnalia Books Prize, the 2015 Philip Levine Prize, the 2018 Georgia Author of the Year award, and a selection for the 2021 ACME Poem Company Surrealist Series. She teaches at Georgia State University.
June 17th
Jeff Shaw: Shaw wrote his memoir after serving 24 years as a police officer in South Florida. He is the award-winning and bestselling author of Lieutenant Trufant (Lanier Press 2022), the first book in his Bloodline trilogy. He now writes full-time and is a member of the Atlanta Writers Club, The Blue Ridge Poets and Writers, and Sisters in Crime.
June 18th
Julie Johns: Julie Johns started writing her first mystery using a manual typewriter around six years old. Her adult writing resulted in a cozy mystery with characters that make her laugh, cry, and want to write more about them. She is a member of the Atlanta Writers Club.
Roger Johns: Johns won the 2018 Georgia Author of the Year for mystery. He was a two-time finalist for the Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award and a runner-up for the 2019 Frank Yerby Fiction Award. Roger has made nearly 150 public appearances. His short stories appear in the Saturday Evening Post and Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. He co-authors the quarterly column “If You Only Have an Hour: Time-Saving Tips & Tricks for Managing Your Writing Career.”
June 19th
Laura Newbern: Newbern’s poetry work earned her the Kore Press First Book Award and the Bergman Prize. She teaches in the undergraduate and MFA programs at Georgia College and is the Editor of Arts & Letters.
June 20th
Monica Weatherly: Weatherly serves as an English professor at Georgia State University-Perimeter College. She won the 2023 Georgia Author of the Year for her poetry chapbook, the 2021 Willie Morris Prize for Southern Poetry, and her work appears in numerous literary journals. Her writing often focuses on the culture and experiences of women of color in the American South.
June 21st
Christopher Noël: Noël holds a master’s degree in philosophy from Yale and an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts, where he taught for twenty years. He dedicated the past fourteen years to learning about the Sasquatch species. He is the author of several books on Bigfoot.
June 22nd
William Walsh: Director of the MFA program and published novelist, several of Walsh’s books were finalists for the William Faulkner Pirate Alley Prize. His collection of poems won the 2019 Editor’s Prize and his literary interviews have been published in over fifty journals.
Gray Stewart: Stewart’s fiction explores Atlanta and its environs across the twentieth century. He taught writing and literature at Louisiana State University, Georgia State University, and Morehouse College. His first novel was awarded the Georgia Author of the Year award in 2017.
June 23rd at 5:00 p.m. in the University Theatre
Commencement
Keynote Speaker: Author Christopher Noel
