Alabama Writers Forum2024-05-06T12:33:19-05:00

The Alabama Writers’ Forum

The Alabama Writers’ Forum, a partnership program of the Alabama State Council on the Arts, works to cultivate our state’s literary culture. We do that through supporting writers at all stages. We encourage our young writers to find their creative voice through the Father Goose Poetry Festival for Kids!–and through our Alabama High School Literary Arts Awards. We support the work of our state’s literary community through our Alabama Authors Directory, First Draft magazine, and other programming and opportunities for writers across the state. And we celebrate our state’s rich literary legacy through the Alabama Writers Hall of Fame. We are, above all, a community of writers united by our desire to advance the literary arts in Alabama. If that describes you — join us! There are many ways to get involved.

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The Filling Station

May 8, 2025|

The Filling Station   By Vanessa Miller  Thomas Nelson, 2025  Hardcover: $27.94, Paperback: $15.19  Genre: Historical fiction   Reviewed by Monique Jones  Two sisters’ lives are changed forever during the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre in Vanessa Miller’s The Filling Station.   The main characters, Margaret and Evelyn Justice, sisters and daughters to an influential man in Greenwood, Tulsa’s prosperous Black district, have their lives torn apart once the massacre breaks out, leaving them without a home and in search of their father. They find solace and refuge at the Threatt Filling Station, located just outside of their community. However, the sisters feel called to return home to salvage what they can, rebuild, and, as their name suggests, seek justice for the wrongdoing inflicted upon their town.  The Tulsa Race Massacre was instigated by racist white citizens who unleashed violence on the Greenwood district, also known as Black Wall Street due to its affluence. This once-overlooked part of history has been reintroduced to a new generation of Americans hoping to learn from the story and find ways to repair what has [...]

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