The University of Georgia Libraries will celebrate three new inductees to the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame with author discussions and a special dinner this November.
The festivities honor food writer John T. Edge and poet A.E. Stallings, as well as pioneering journalist Julia Collier Harris, who is being inducted posthumously.
The weekend-long celebration is part of the University of Georgia’s Spotlight on the Arts festival and takes place at the Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries. It begins Nov. 15 at 7 p.m. with a poetry reading featuring Stallings, a UGA alumna who serves as the director of the Poetry Center in Athens, Greece. Stalling’s most recent collection of poetry, her book “Like,” was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 2018, and she is a recipient of prestigious fellowships from the Guggenheim and MacArthur foundations.
On Nov. 16, a special dinner event will honor Edge, the author of “The Potlikker Papers: A Food History of the Modern South,” which was named a best book of the year by NPR in 2017. Edge currently serves as director of the Southern Foodways Alliance, an institute of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi, and hosts the television show “TrueSouth” on the SEC Network.
The dinner features local chefs Mimi Maumus of home.made, Mike and Shyretha Sheats of The Plate Sale, and Pablo Rivadeneyra, Homero Elizaldo, and Jerry and Krista Slater of The Expat. Tickets are $60, and $10 of the ticket price will support the Libraries Excellence Fund and is tax deductible.
On Nov. 17, Edge and Stallings will engage in an author discussion with Virginia Prescott of Georgia Public Broadcasting’s “On Second Thought.” This event, scheduled for 4 p.m., is part of UGA’s Signature Lecture Series. Requests for accommodations for those with disabilities should be made as soon as possible but at least seven days prior to the scheduled lecture. Please contact Katie Fite in the Office of Academic Programs at 706-542-0383 or at kcfite@uga.edu to request accommodations.
The weekend will culminate in the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame induction ceremony, which will be held at 6 p.m. Nov. 17. It will include a tribute to Harris, author, activist and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who published the Columbus Enquirer-Sun alongside her husband Julian, the son of author Joel Chandler Harris.
While the dinner is ticketed, all other events are free and open to the public. Please register for each of these events.
For more information, contact Leandra Nessel, University of Georgia Libraries Development, lnessel@uga.edu, 706.542.3879
The Georgia Writers Hall of Fame was established in 2000 by the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, part of the University of Georgia’s Special Collections Libraries, to honor Georgia writers and introduce the public to its rich collections for research into Georgia literature and cultural history. An annual public ceremony at the University of Georgia’s Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries celebrates each year’s annual inductees in conjunction with an exhibit of rare books and literary manuscripts.
