Alabama Writers' Forum

Thin Air Magazine Call for Submissions
2023-09-01 10:00 - 2023-10-16 01:59 (America/Chicago)
Thin Air Magazine is accepting submissions for our 30th issue until October 15th, 2023! This year’s theme is Uprooted! We invite work that reflects on how personal and/ or collective uprooting transforms us. Consider: personal identity, physical locales, relationships, language, life circumstances, and all else. However, all art uproots us so you are welcome to submit your work regardless of how directly it speaks to this year’s theme. We accept fiction and nonfiction up to 3,000 words, or up to three poems. We are also seeking visual art submissions that might serve as the cover for Issue 30. View submission guidelines and submit via the Thin Air Magazine Submittable.
We charge a $3.00 submission fee for our print issue as well as Thin Air Online. This fee will be waived from October 9th to October 11th in celebration of Indigenous Peoples’ Day in an effort to minimize barriers and encourage work from marginalized writers.
We are also accepting submissions for the fourth annual Bird In Your Hands Prize. This contest celebrates and centers BIPOC writers. We accept submissions of under 500 words in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. The winner will receive $500, be published in Issue 30 of Thin Air, and interviewed for Thin Air Online. The winner and runners-up will also be invited to read their work at the Northern Arizona Book Festival held in April 2024. First and second runners-up will be awarded an honorarium. Entries are limited to BIPOC writers, and will be accepted from September 15th to November 5th on Submittable. This year’s judge is National Poetry Series winner Kinsale Drake.

Dr. Lee Farrow Series on 19th-century Russian Writers Begins
2023-09-07 17:30 - 19:00 | The NewSouth Bookstore, 105 S. Court St, Montgomery, 36104, United States
Join us for a special three-part series on Russia’s great nineteenth-century writers led by Lee Farrow, Chair of the Department of History and World Cultures at Auburn University at Montgomery. Farrow’s first program will be held Thursday, September 7, at 5:30pm. Her topic for the evening will be the work of Alexander Pushkin, widely considered Russia’s greatest poet, and his contemporary Nikolai Gogol, who both critiqued Russian society and government through their writing, the only way intellectuals could challenge the autocracy in a (relatively) safe manner. Pushkin, in particular, highlighted the impotency of Russia’s educated upper class and created the trope of the “superfluous man” that would dominate Russian literature for several decades. Three cheers to Steve Brickley, whose request for “intellectually stimulating bookstore programming” led us to reach out to Lee Farrow. Our sincere thanks to Dr. Farrow for gifting us with this program. You won’t want to miss it.

Reading by Ashley M. Jones, Poet Laureate of Alabama
2023-09-07 17:30 - 19:00 | University of South Alabama, Student Center Ballroom, 350 Alumni Drive, Mobile, AL, 36608, United States
Ashley M. Jones will share poems from her powerful books: Magic City Gospel (Hub City Press, 2017), dark // thing (Pleiades Press, 2019), and REPARATIONS NOW! (Hub City Press, 2021). Her poetry has earned several awards, including the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers Award, the Silver Medal in the Independent Publishers Book Awards, the Lena-Miles Wever Todd Prize for Poetry, and the Lucille Clifton Legacy Award. Featured on several news outlets including Good Morning America, ABC News, and the BBC, Jones lives in Birmingham where she is the Associate Director of the University Honors Program at UAB.

Alabama Writers’ Cooperative 100th Anniversary Conference
2023-09-08 16:00 - 2023-09-10 14:00 | O’Neal Public Library, 50 Oak Street, Mountain Brook, AL, 35213, United States
Our in-person conference will feature writing workshops, manuscript consultations, an awards banquet to honor our contest winners, open mic, and the annual AWC membership meeting.

DISQUIET International Literary Program
2023-09-11 - 2023-12-01
Program applications are open until December 1 for the DISQUIET International Literary Program. Experience contemporary Portuguese literature and workshop your writing next summer with the DISQUIET International Literary Program in Lisbon. Faculty for 2024 will include Jessica Anthony, Chris Feliciano Arnold, Jamel Brinkley, Cyriaco Lopes, T Kira Madden, Diana Khoi Nguyen, Katherine Vaz, Terri Witek, and many more TBA.
Full tuition waivers are available through our writing contest; see our website for details or enter at disquietinternational.submittable.com

There IS a Balm in Gilead
2023-09-12 08:30 - 2023-09-14 17:00
“There IS A Balm in Gilead: Healing From The Events of 1963″ is a conference that will take place September 12-14, 2023, in Birmingham, Alabama. We will discuss the events of 1963 that changed the city and inspired similar movements for human and civil rights across the nation and worldwide.
Complete Conference Registration includes:
– Opening Reception
– Access to keynote and breakout sessions
– Breakfast, lunch, and refreshment breaks
Registration Fees and Tickets:
– Full conference: $200
– Pre-conference AM Bus Tour of Historic Civil Rights Sites in BHAM: $50.00
– Pre-conference PM Bus Tour of Historic Civil Rights Sites in BHAM: $50.00
– Refund Policy: Refunds up to 30 days before the event

NewSouth Bookstore hosting Victor Luckerson
2023-09-14 17:30 - 19:00 | The NewSouth Bookstore, 105 S. Court St, Montgomery, 36104, United States
Victor Luckerson comes home to his native Montgomery for this special bookstore program in connection with the release of his new book, Built from the Fire: The Epic Story of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, America’s Black Wall Street, is a multigenerational saga of a community that in one century survived the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, urban renewal, and gentrification. Jelani Cobb of The New Yorker calls Built from the Fire “an American epic — damning in its implications, inspirational in its theme of perseverance no matter the obstacles, and compelling from its opening paragraph to its final sentence.” Victor Luckerson is among the best journalists covering race matters today, writing for The New Yorker, The New York Times, Wired, and other publications. His first Montgomery appearance since the publication of Built from the Fire is bound to be a fascinating one. Please join us.

Call for Submissions at Thirteen Bridges Review - AUM's professional literary journal
2023-09-18 - 2023-11-01
We are now accepting submissions at Thirteen Bridges Review in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction until November 1.
Accepted stories and poems will be posted to our monthly features gallery on our new website at https://www.thirteenbridgesreview.com/
We have an international focus but always love supporting local writers, so please don’t hesitate to send us your work.
Guidelines and submission links here:
https://thirteenbridgesreview.submittable.com/submit

Understanding Sickle Cell Disease Community Advocacy Event
2023-09-19 17:30 - 18:30 | The NewSouth Bookstore, 105 S. Court St, Montgomery, 36104, United States
We are proud to host a special educational program called Understanding Sickle Cell Disease: A Community Advocacy Event, arranged in partnership with Sickle Cell Foundation, Greater Montgomery, and Children’s of Alabama. A panel of doctors and researchers collaborating in the treatment of sickle cell anemia will gather to update our friends and neighbors about the disease. Come listen and learn!

Author Andeana Simone Stewart Event
2023-09-22 12:00 - 14:00
Author Andeana Simone Stewart Event: book signing; books for sale. Andeana Simone Stewart has a total of 18 books out now available on amazon.com

Winner of the Fitzgerald Prize for Literary Excellence: An Evening with Ta-Nehisi Coates, Celebrating American Storytelling
2023-09-22 18:30 - 20:00 | Ralph Abernathy Hall, 1625 Harris Way, Montgomery, AL, 36106, United States
The Fitzgerald Prize for Literary Excellence is awarded annually by the Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum to an author whose work continues the legacy of American storytelling while also exemplifying the craft, wit, and social insight typified by F. Scott Fitzgerald. F. Scott Fitzgerald was a novelist, short story writer, essayist, screenwriter, playwright, lyricist, poet, and veteran. The Fitzgerald Prize recognizes an author’s contribution in one or more of these areas.
The Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum is pleased to award Ta-Nehisi Coates the 2023 Fitzgerald Prize for Literary Excellence for his work in promoting social and racial understanding as an essayist and novelist, while also fostering American storytelling as an educator and writer across multiple disciplines and genres including screenwriter and graphic novelist.
An Evening with Ta-Nehisi Coates will be held at Alabama State University’s Ralph Abernathy Hall in Montgomery, Alabama on Friday, Sept. 22 from 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm. The evening will include the awarding of the 2023 F. Scott Fitzgerald Prize for Literary Excellence by the Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum, followed by a discussion between Mr. Coates and Dr. Derryn Moten, professor of History at Alabama State University.
Audience members are encouraged to submit questions for the discussion in advance using the Q&A submission link.
Tickets are available through Eventbrite:
https://aneveningwithtanehisicoates.eventbrite.com

Alabama State Poetry Society Online Open Mic
2023-09-25 18:30 - 19:30, 2023-10-23 18:30 - 19:30 | Zoom
Join us for online poetry open mics the 4th Monday of each month!
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85693609367
Meeting ID: 856 9360 9367

Reading by Ben Raines, University of South Alabama’s Environmental Fellow/Writer-in-Residence
2023-09-26 17:00 - 18:30 | University of South Alabama’s MacQueen Alumni Center, 100 Alumni Dr., Mobile, AL, 36608, United States
Tuesday, September 26, 2023 at 5:00 P.M.
Location: MacQueen Alumni Center
Book Signing and Reception to Follow
The University of South Alabama is proud to welcome our new Environmental Fellow/Writer-in-Residence, Ben Raines, who will be giving a reading on Tuesday, September 26, 2023, at 5:00 P.M. in the MacQueen Alumni Center. A book signing and reception will follow this free event, sponsored by the Stokes Center for Creative Writing.
Raines is an accomplished filmmaker and writer who recently published _Saving America’s Amazon: The Threat to Our Nation’s Most Biodiverse River System_ (NewSouth Books, 2020) and _The Last Slave Ship: The True Story of How Clotilda Was Found, Her Descendants, and an Extraordinary Reckoning_ (Simon & Schuster, 2023). Raines has also written and directed _The Underwater Forest_, an award-winning film about the exploration of a 70,000-year-old cypress forest found off the Alabama coast, and written and produced the documentary _America’s Amazon_. An experienced environmental journalist and filmmaker, Raines highlights Alabama’s landscape as one of the richest and most diverse regions in the world, inspiring action regarding how we can better preserve this landscape and its communities.

The NewSouth Bookstore hosting Betty Amstutz Gerson
2023-09-26 17:30 - 19:00 | The NewSouth Bookstore, 105 S. Court St, Montgomery, 36104, United States
Betty Gerson returns to Alabama for a talk about her newly released memoir, From Montgomery to the Matterhorn. Her book details the story of her move to Zurich after falling in love with a young Swiss man after college; her experiences living in Switzerland; and the social, political and historical aspects of the cultures of both her homelands. Join us for what will be a delightful evening. Book signing to follow.

Call for Submissions: Heroines Anthology, Volume 5
2023-09-27 12:13 - 2023-12-17 10:13
Women poets are invited to submit poetry that reimagines women in myth, fairy tale, folklore or legend, poems that tell women’s lost histories, or untold stories, to the Heroines Anthology and Women’s Writing Prize. This will be the Heroines Anthology’s fifth volume and it is a GLOBAL POETRY EDITION. Submissions close on the 18TH DECEMBER 2023. First prize is $500 and all short-listed entries will be published in the anthology. Find out more & submit your poetry here: https://www.theneoperennialpress.com/heroine anthology submissions

An Evening of Music and Stories with the Vikings, Featuring Nils Maaetoft and Karren Pell
2023-09-28 17:30 - 19:00 | The NewSouth Bookstore, 105 S. Court St, Montgomery, 36104, United States
Join us for an evening of live music and song with the Vikings, led by Danish artist Nils Maaetoft and friend and co-writer Karren Pell, along with fellow artists Tim Henderson, Larry Gobrecht, Tony Castaldo, and Danish multi-instrumentalist Micheal Lund. Their program titled “Songs and Stories” will feature such Maaetoft favorites as “Love Is Still a Mystery” and “Wetumpka by Dinnertime” and – if the Muses are generous – some new tunes as well. The evening promises to be great fun.

Open calls for writers and artists
2023-09-29 - 2023-10-31 | Online, NC
Sunspot Lit publishes work that counts. Welcomes art and fiction, nonfiction, poetry, scripts, and graphic novels from 4 words to 49,000 words (open calls for longer categories close early). Accepts genre, commercial, mainstream and literary. Pays editor’s prizes and cover art. Submit at https://sunspotlit.submittable.com/submit today!

Author Andeana Simone Stewart Event
2023-09-30 09:00 - 12:30 | Juliette Hampton Morgan Memorial Library, 245 High St., Montgomery, AL, 36104, United States
There will be two Author Events this month at Juliette Hampton Memorial Library in Montgomery, featuring author Andeana Simone Stewart, one on September 22 and one on September 30.

Sidewalk Sale at The NewSouth Bookstore
2023-10-02 10:00 - 2023-10-06 17:00 | The NewSouth Bookstore, 105 S. Court St, Montgomery, 36104, United States
The NewSouth Bookstore holds its first ever Sidewalk Sale. Join us at the curb for a sale of thousands of books, new and used, priced at $5, $3, and $1. It’s a bonanza of titles! There’s sure to be something of interest to you. Rain or shine! One week only! Bring a friend!

Ayana Mathis presents THE UNSETTLED, in conversations with Idrissa N. Snider
2023-10-04 19:00 - 20:30 | Thank You Books, 5502 Crestwood Blvd Unit B, Birmingham, AL, 35212, United States
Having loved The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, we are over the moon to host Ayana Mathis in celebration of her much-anticipated second novel THE UNSETTLED. She will be in conversation with scholar and author Dr. Idrissa N. Snider. The event is free, open to everyone, and seating is first-come, first-serve.
*
AYANA MATHIS’s first novel, The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, was a New York Times best seller, an NPR Best Book of 2013, the second selection for Oprah’s Book Club 2.0. and has been translated into sixteen languages. Her nonfiction has been published in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Guernica, and Rolling Stone. Mathis is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She was born in Philadelphia, and currently lives in New York City where she teaches writing in Hunter College’s MFA Program.
Idrissa N. Snider, Ph.D., is a womanist scholar and author. Her forthcoming book, So, Journey and Tell the Truth: Self-Definitive Exploration of Black American Female Icons, is slated for release in 2024 with Lexington. It is a fresh look at how Black women posit identity as a force of resistance against political and entertainment spaces that systematically misname and mischaracterize the group. Snider travels the country facilitating talks and lectures on DEI at the crossroads of intersectionality. In addition to Snider’s research, she is passionate about our youth and supports numerous educational efforts to promote African American history. She frequently writes an opinion column for the Birmingham Times and has taught at The University of Alabama at Birmingham and Samford University, amongst other colleges and institutes.

ASPS Fall Workshop & Awards
2023-10-06 18:30 - 2023-10-07 15:00 | Desert Island Supply Co. (DISCO) Birmingham, AL, 5500 1st Ave N., Birmingham, AL, 35212, United States
About the Event
ASPS Fall Meeting
Date: October 6-7, 2023
Locations:
Friday night:
Birmingham Public Library Central Branch
2100 Park Place
Birmingham, AL 35203
Saturday:
Desert Island Supply Co. (DISCO)
5500 1st Ave N.
Birmingham, AL 35212
Lodging:
Mint House
300 18th St. S
Birmingham, AL 35233
Studio apartments with kitchen, queen beds, etc for $139 per night. Located in the heart of bustling Five Points South, steps from the city’s finest dining, restaurants, and shops.
***To reserve your room at the group rate, visit https://reservations.travelclick.com/115433?groupID=4060415 or call 855-972-9090 and ask for the Alabama State Poetry Society block by Friday, Sept. 22.
Cost:
Members $10 (includes lunch)
Non-Members $25 (includes lunch)
Zoom only Members FREE (But you must register to get the link!)
Zoom only Non-Members $10
Zoom: This meeting will be simulcast on Zoom, for those not attending in person. (Zoom will be for Saturday only.)
Presenter:
Joseph Woods, aka Black Atticus, is the current Poet Laureate of Knoxville, TN. Atticus weaves the art of conversation through nu-sage wisdom with a dash of mother wit, the hard facts of life, and an honest sense of humor that hits home seamlessly.
Schedule:
Friday night
6:30-9 PM
Bards and Brews poetry open mic will also serve as our first preliminary slam to qualify as ASPS representative to BlackBerryPeach in June.
Snacks will be served, and a free beer tasting from a local brewery is included.
Saturday
9 AM
Meet and Greet. Coffee and continental breakfast items provided.
9:30 – 10:30 AM
Workshop with Joseph Woods, Poet Laureate of Knoxville, TN:
Finding New Value in Your Older Poems – We often stop presenting older poems, or seeking publication and recognition for them because we are no longer “in that place” in our lives. We will remember how to find the value in the voice and the life that give these poems ongoing importance.
10:40 – 11:10 AM
Readings by Book of the Year and Poet of the Year winners: Nancy Owen Nelson and Roger Carlisle
11:15 AM– 12:15 PM
Workshop with Joseph Woods, Poet Laureate of Knoxville, TN:
Writing tips to strengthen your work, awareness of audience, tips on presentation and memorization for those who are interested in public events.
12:15 – 1 PM: Lunch
1 –??: Fall 2023 ASPS Contest awards presentation and reading of winning poems.

The NewSouth Bookstore in partnership with the Civil Rights Memorial Center hosting Fergus Bordewich
2023-10-18 17:30 - 19:00
The NewSouth Bookstore is offsite at the Civil Rights Memorial Center on October 18 at 5:30pm, partnering on a talk with Fergus Bordewich, author of Klan War: Ulysses S. Grant and the Battle to Save Reconstruction, which releases just a week earlier. Klan War is a stunning history of the first national anti-terrorist campaign waged on American soil, when Ulysses S. Grant wielded the power of the federal government to dismantle the KKK. The author’s compelling narrative — by turns, frightening, bracing, and timely — will remind readers that today’s battle between white supremacy and human justice has a long history. Fergus Bordewich is the author of eight previous works of nonfiction, many award-winning, which include Bound for Cannan: The Epic Story of the Underground Railroad, America’s First Civil Rights Movement, a favorite among customers at our bookstore. Contact Jessala White if you cannot join us for the program and wish to reserve a signed copy of Klan War.

Alabama Colloquium featuring Imani Perry and David Mathews
2023-10-23 11:30 - 13:30 | Grand Bohemian Hotel, 2655 Lane Park Road, Birmingham, AL, 35223, United States
On October 23, the Alabama Humanities Alliance presents the 2023 Alabama Colloquium, sponsored by Regions. This annual gathering celebrates the power of the humanities — including literature! — to lift up Alabama. We’ll also honor our Alabama Humanities Fellows of 2023: acclaimed scholars, historians, and community-builders, David Mathews and Imani Perry. Both have authored numerous books, with Perry winning the National Book Award for Nonfiction in 2022.
The day’s program will include an enlightening conversation between the honorees, as well as an introduction of AHA’s newest collaboration, Healing History. This initiative is designed to strengthen our communities and state by helping neighbor better know neighbor — across race, religion, political affiliation, and all those other frequent dividing lines that shouldn’t keep us apart.
Post-event, AHA will offer a limited-capacity listening tour of Wallace House, run by Klein Arts & Culture in Shelby County. Built in 1841, the Wallace House was once part of a 5,000-acre cotton plantation, which was worked by nearly 100 enslaved people. Today, descendants of the home’s White landowners and enslaved Black population work together to examine their shared history and create a space for mutual understanding and reconciliation.

Alabama Colloquium 2023
2023-10-23 11:30 - 15:00 | Grand Bohemian Hotel, 2655 Lane Park Road, Birmingham, AL, 35223, United States
The Alabama Humanities Alliance bestows its highest honor on Alabamians who have made our state and world a smarter, kinder, and more vibrant place to live. All through the humanities.
date+location
October 23, 2023
The Grand Bohemian
2655 Lane Park Road | Birmingham, AL 35223
schedule
11:30 a.m. | luncheon
noon | main program
3 p.m. | Wallace House tour*
program
• conversation with our Fellows: David Mathews and Imani Perry
• video tribute to our 2023 Alabama Humanities Fellows
• introduction to AHA’s Healing History initiative
• preview of AHA’s 50th anniversary in 2024
• award presentations + audience Q&A
• book signing opportunity
bonus experience*
Following the Alabama Colloquium, we’re offering a limited-capacity listening tour of Wallace House, run by our partners at Klein Arts & Culture. Built in 1841, the Wallace House was once part of a 5,000-acre cotton plantation, which was worked by nearly 100 enslaved people. Today, descendants of the home’s White landowners and enslaved Black population work together to examine their shared history and create a space for mutual understanding and reconciliation.

Hocus Pocus Movie Night and Costume Contest at The NewSouth Bookstore
2023-10-27 17:00 - 19:00 | The NewSouth Bookstore, 105 S. Court St, Montgomery, 36104, United States
It wouldn’t be Halloween without kids and a little Hocus Pocus. Yes, we have that great book for sale, but we also have a fun event planned which includes screening of the Halloween classic, a costume contest, and more. Bring your children and come dressed at your spookiest best. This is safe family fun — even if there is a scare or two involved!

Built From the Fire: A Talking Book
2023-10-27 19:30 - 21:30 | Capri Theatre, 1045 East Fairview Avenue, Montgomery, AL, 36106, United States
Author Victor Luckerson partners with the close third to explore powerful parallels between Tulsa’s “Black Wall Street” and Montgomery, Alabama. Montgomery native and National Magazine Award nominee Victor Luckerson is partnering with collective arts organization, close third, to bring the story of Tulsa’s famous Greenwood District alive at the Capri Theatre this October.

Part Two of Great 19th-Century Russian Writers talk with Dr. Lee Farrow
2023-11-02 17:30 - 19:00 | The NewSouth Bookstore, 105 S. Court St, Montgomery, 36104, United States
Dr. Lee Farrow returns to The NewSouth Bookstore for the second talk in a series about the great 19th-century Russian writers. She will continue discussing the theme of the “superfluous man” in Russian literature, focusing on the works of Mikhail Lermontov, Ivan Turgenev, and Ivan Goncharov. These three authors portrayed the ideological and generational conflicts that were challenging Russian educated society, fixing a critical eye on the hypocrisies and ineffectiveness of both the intellectuals of the “old guard” and the younger generation that would replace them.” As many of you have already discovered, Farrow is a lively and knowledgeable presenter. You won’t want to miss her program!

Kauai Writers Conference
2023-11-06 - 2023-11-13 | Royal Sonesta Kauai Resort, 3610 Rice Street, Lihue, HI, 96766, United States
The Kauai Writers Conference, now in its tenth year, has grown to be regarded as the premier writers gathering in the U.S. Each November a faculty of 40+ renowned authors and top literary agents come to the Royal Sonesta Kauai Resort for a week. Conference participants work on their craft in master classes, workshops, and discussions with these authors and present their work to the agents for representation and critique.
You can learn all about this event at kauaiwritersconference.com
AWF members are entitled to a 20% discount on their registration. To get this discount, enter WG789 when asked for a code on the registration page.

Julie Williams with Wings of Opportunity
2023-11-09 17:30 - 19:00 | The NewSouth Bookstore, 105 S. Court St, Montgomery, 36104, United States
Join us for a fun National Aviation Month presentation with award-winning historian Julie Hedgepeth Williams. Her book Wings of Opportunity describes a lesser-known chapter of the Wright brothers’ history, which began in 1910 when Wilbur and Orville moved to Montgomery, Alabama to open our nation’s first civilian flight school. Says one reviewer of her book: “Dr. Williams is a masterful storyteller. In Wings of Opportunity, Julie Williams vividly recreates the complex tale of civic pride, two aviation pioneers who had little interest in public image, local journalists who didn’t know what to make of them, and the fascination of ordinary citizens with the amazing invention of flight.” Take-off is at 5:30pm on November 9!
